Adult-type systemic varicella in a female patient in course of treatment of her so-called reactive lymphocytic (T-cell) hyperplasia.

A 31-year-old woman was examined in this case. Biopsy revealed an abnormal nontumorous proliferation of T-cells in the lymph node. Clinically, the patient was treated by C-MOPP and steroid under clinical suspicion of T-cell lymphoma. In the period of observation of the course of illness, the patient contracted varicella from her real child and died on the 8th day of illness. She was examined pathologically, electron microscopically, and by the fluorescent antibody technique. Virus infections foci, which were mostly necrotic ones, were found in the parenchymatous and interstitial cells of skin, lung, adrenal gland, digestive organs, liver, lymph nodes, and genital organs. In the circulatory system, proliferative foci with degeneration of endothelial and adventitial cells were noticed in small veins or venules, but little change was found in the arterial system. Electron microscopic observation suggested a destruction of the so-called limiting basement membrane around blood vessels. This was an important finding indicative of a mechanism of viral transmission to the interstitial cell system.