A Case of Secondary Syphilis with a Solitary Pulmonary Lesion

Abstract

This study describes a case of secondary syphilis with a papular eruption and penile ulceration. A chest roentgenogram showed a solitary lesion in the left middle lung field. Histological examination revealed epithelioid cell granuloma in both the penile ulcer and the lung lesion. After antisyphilitic treatment, the lung lesion shrunk remarkably and at the same time the skin eruption and the systemic symptoms also improved.

Secondary Pulmonary Syphilis: Report of A Likely Case and Literature Review

“…The typical obliterative endarteritis with perivascular plasma cell infiltrate has never been described in the small nonsurgical biopsies performed during pulmonary secondary syphilis [7,9]. Even epithelioid cell granulomas occur occasionally in secondary syphilis, especially in the late stage [7]. In our case, the radiological presentation-multiple, subpleural, excavated, well-defined nodules-was very similar to previous descriptions of pulmonary gumma [18], but histological examination did not confirm this impression.…”

“…Granuloma, though not specific to the disease, appears evocative of pulmonary secondary syphilis [7,9]. The typical obliterative endarteritis with perivascular plasma cell infiltrate has never been described in the small nonsurgical biopsies performed during pulmonary secondary syphilis [7,9]. Even epithelioid cell granulomas occur occasionally in secondary syphilis, especially in the late stage [7].…”

Secondary Syphilis with Pleural Effusion: Case Report and Literature Review

“…Based on our review of the English literature, we were able to locate 11 cases of pulmonary involvement in the presentation of secondary syphilis since 1966 [2,3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Most of these patients had skin rash as one of the presenting symptoms.…”

Cytologic diagnosis of syphilitic pleuritis: A case report

“…At a later stage epithelioid granulomas form, which may necrotize to become forerunners of gummas. [6][7][8] Gummas are necrotizing granulomatous lesions localized subpleurally in the lower lobes in the tertiary stage of the disease. 5,7-10 They retain the tissue architecture because of the preservation of elastic fibers.…”

“…Although there are many reported cases of lung involvement and a few of pleural involvement by the disease, there are no reports in which the diagnosis was made by cytopathologic examination of a pleural fluid specimen. [1][2][3][4][5][6] We report on the findings in a case of luetic pleuritis accompanying pneumonia in the secondary stage of the disease.…”