Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease in fine-needle aspiration smears: a clinico-cytologic study of 76 cases of KFD and 684 cases of reactive hyperplasia of the lymph node.

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD) is cytologically characterized by a polymorphous lymphoid cell population, abundant karyorrhectic debris and histiocytes, many of which are crescentic (Kikuchi histiocytes). As per reviewed literature, KFD may be confused with tuberculosis, lymphoma, and reactive hyperplasia of lymph nodes (RHLN). Since RHLN was found to be a major challenging factor during routine cytodiagnosis of KFD in our material, we tried to find out the differentiating clinico-cytologic features between 76 KFD and 684 RHLN cases seen in Kuwait.