Abstract

OLIVO, Ricardo Aparecido; MARTINS, Fabrício Frederico Mendes; SOARES, Sheila  and  MORAES-SOUZA, Helio. Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: report of two cases. Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop. [online]. 2008, vol.41, n.3, pp. 288-292. ISSN 0037-8682.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0037-86822008000300012.

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma is a lymphoproliferative disorder of mature T lymphocytes associated with infection with human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type I (HTLV-I). Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma is characterized by clinical and laboratory polymorphism that allows it to be classified into four distinct subgroups: smoldering, chronic, acute and lymphomatous types. We present here two cases of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma, respectively in the acute and lymphomatous forms of the disease. Case 1 was a 35-year-old woman who presented abdominal distension accompanied by hepatosplenomegaly, adenomegaly, skin lesions, positivity for anti-HTLV-I antibodies and leukocytosis with the presence of flower cells. Case 2 was a 38-year-old man who was admitted with generalized lymphadenomegaly, positivity for anti-HTLV-I antibodies, hypercalcemia and osteolytic lesions. In this paper, we correlate the clinical-laboratory findings of these two cases with data in the literature.

Keywords : Human T-cell lymphotrophic virus; Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma; Flower cell.