Multicentric reticulohistiocytosis.

ABSTRACT

We describe a 42-year-old man with a five-year history of arthritis mutilans-like destructive joint changes and with a one-year history of nodules on the fingers, ears, oral mucosa, pharynx, larynx, vocal cords, some being ulcerated and haemorrhagic. He was diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis; however, biopsies from the nodules on the oral mucosa and ear revealed multicentric reticulohistiocytosis. The large nodule over the olecranon process, simulating a rheumatoid nodule but diagnosed as multicentric reticulohistiocytosis with biopsy; ulcerated and haemorrhagic nodules on the oral mucosa; and rapidly progressive joint destructions make our case interesting.