Benign lymphoepithelial lesion arising in the parotid gland

Abstract

The authors diagnosed a 33 years old female as benign lymphoepithelial lesion after undergoing clinical, radiological and histopathological examinations and the characteristics were as follows : 1. Clinically, the patient complained of painless bilateral swelling of the parotid glands and dryness of the palate. Rheumatoid factor was detected in her serum. 2. Sialograms showed punctate or globular collections of contrast media distributed evenly throughout the parotid glands in so-called 'cherry blossom' or 'leafless fruit-laden tree' appearance. 3. A salivary gland scan showed no uptake of radioisotopes by the parotid glands. 4. At Tl-weighted imaging of PNS MRI, the lesions had the same signal intensity as the rest of the gland. At TI-weighted imaging, the lesions could be seen as high signal intensity 1.3 cm and 2.1 cm in diameter in the left and the right parotid gland respectively. 5. Ultrasonogram showed sonolucent lesions 20×15mm and 17×14mm in size in the lower part of the left parotid gland and another 18×11mm in size in the lower part of the parotid gland as well as many other small sonolucent lesions. 6. Histopathologically, lymphocytic infiltration replacing the normal acini and lymphoid follicles containing germinal centers could be seen. Epimyoepithelial islands were scattered throughout the lesion and benign lymphoepithelial cysts were also observed