The Specific Post-Capillary Venules of Lymphoglandular Tissue in Hodgkin’s Disease

Summary

High endothelium post-capillary venules, a specific detail in the structural organization of normal lymph nodes, were looked for in lymph nodes invaded by different types of malignant lymphoma. Such venules proved completely absent in lymphosarcoma and reticulosarcoma tissue; they were usually absent in chronic lymphatic leukemia (present in specimens from one of six cases studied) but constantly and sometimes even abundantly present in the specific lymphoma tissue of Hodgkin’s disease (9 cases representing lymphocyte predominance, mixed cellularity and nodular sclerosis). The absence of a perivenular cuff of lymphocytes, especially striking in a case of nodular sclerosis, made the author doubt the concept of Gowans that the intraendothelial lymphocytes represent parenchyma-bound immigrant lymphocytes from blood.