Kikuchi's Disease Diagnosed by an Excisional Biopsy in a Patient With COVID-19.

Abstract

COVID-19 is an ongoing pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The clinical features of COVID-19 are myriad. Though it is a multisystem illness, it predominantly involves the respiratory system. There have been case reports on rare manifestations of COVID-19, of which COVID-19-related Kikuchi's disease is one of them. To our knowledge, this is the third reported case in the world. We report a lady in her late 60s with COVID-19 infection and secondary bacterial pneumonia, which necessitated ICU admission, having ongoing fever spikes with high inflammatory markers and leukopenia. She was also found to have tender cervical lymphadenopathy on the third week of illness, whose biopsy revealed histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis in keeping with Kikuchi's disease. The patient had an uneventful recovery in two weeks without any intervention. The pathophysiology of COVID-19-related Kikuchi's disease is unclear. However, COVID-19 is a viral illness that involves changes in interleukins. The latter is postulated in Kikuchi's disease.