Unilateral Conjunctival Chemosis as a Presenting Sign of Plasmablastic Lymphoma (PBL) – a case report by Shital Mani, OD FAAO., Donald A. MacDonald, MD; Monmouth Eye Care, Tinton Falls, NJ
Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) was first described in 1997 by Delecluse et al.,1 with a total of sixteen cases, exclusively involving the oral cavity and predominantly in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive patients. Since then, approximately 120 cases of PBL in oral and extra-oral sites in HIV-negative patients have been reported in the literature. PBL is distinguished as a subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) due to the presence of neoplastic cells resembling B immunoblasts but with immunophenotypic features of plasma cells. Although there have been reported cases of extra-oral PBL, orbital involvement in an immunocompetent patient is extremely rare. To date, there are only eight published cases of orbital PBL and of those, only two have been reported in HIV-negative patients.2-6 We report a third case of an HIV-negative patient with ocular adnexal involvement as the initial presenting sign of PBL.
The details of this case report are summarized in a poster, entitled Unilateral Conjunctival Chemosis.
