A Case of Methimazole-induced Agranulocytosis and Kikuchi's Disease in a Patient with Graves' Disease.

Lee, Seung Eun; Ahn, Jihyun; Kim, Jaetaek; Oh, Yeon Sahng; Chung, Yun Jae

doi:2008.23.6.420

Endocrinol Metab > Volume 23(6); 2008 > Article

Case Report

Journal of Korean Endocrine Society 2008;23(6):420-424.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3803/jkes.2008.23.6.420 Published online December 1, 2008.

A Case of Methimazole-induced Agranulocytosis and Kikuchi's Disease in a Patient with Graves' Disease.

Seung Eun Lee, Jihyun Ahn, Jaetaek Kim, Yeon Sahng Oh, Yun Jae Chung

Division of Endocrinology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Methimazole-induced agranulocytosis is a rare, but critical side effect that should be recognized as soon as possible since it may induce a life-threatening condition when it was overlooked. Histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis is also called Kikuchi's lymphadenitis, and this is a rare form of lymphadenitis with a self-limited clinical course and this illness is accompanied by cervical lymph node enlargement, fever and malaise. We recently experienced a patient with methimazole-induced agranulocytosis and Graves' disease, and this was accompanied by Kikuchi's disease; the patient presented with sore throat and multiple enlarged cervical lymph nodes. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous report on methimazole-induced agranulocytosis combined with Kikuchi's disease. Therefore, we report here on this very rare case along with a brief review of the relevant literature.

Key Words: agranulocytosis, Graves' disease, Kikuchi's disease