Tuberculous lymphadenitis (or tuberculous adenitis) is a chronic specific granulomatous inflammation with caseation necrosis

Necrosis

Necrosis is the premature death of cells in living tissue. Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue, such as infection, toxins, or trauma. This is in contrast to apoptosis, which is a naturally occurring cause of cellular death...

 of the lymph node

Lymph node

A lymph node is a small ball or an oval-shaped organ of the immune system, distributed widely throughout the body including the armpit and stomach/gut and linked by lymphatic vessels. Lymph nodes are garrisons of B, T, and other immune cells. Lymph nodes are found all through the body, and act as...

.

The characteristic morphological

Histopathology

Histopathology refers to the microscopic examination of tissue in order to study the manifestations of disease...

 element is the tuberculous granuloma

Granuloma

Granuloma is a medical term for a tiny collection of immune cells known as macrophages. Granulomas form when the immune system attempts to wall off substances that it perceives as foreign but is unable to eliminate. Such substances include infectious organisms such as bacteria and fungi as well as...

 (caseating tubercule): giant multinucleated cell

Giant multinucleated cell

Giant multinucleated cells are seen in the early stages of active infection with the acid-fast bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of the disease tuberculosis.- Formation :Following inhalation of the M...

s (Langhans cells), surrounded by epithelioid cell

Epithelioid cell

Epithelioid histiocytes are activated macrophages resembling epithelial cells: elongated, with finely granular, pale eosinophilic cytoplasm and central, ovoid nucleus, which is less dense than that of a lymphocyte...

s aggregates, T cell lymphocytes and few fibroblasts. Granulomatous tubercules evolve to central caseous necrosis and tend to become confluent, replacing the lymphoid tissue.

External links

• Microscopy