Walsh & Hoyt: Hodgkin's Disease

In 1832, Hodgkin described the autopsy findings in seven patients who died with generalized lymph node enlargement and splenomegaly. Subsequently, Wilks referred to the disorder as Hodgkins disease and emphasized that it was characterized by ""a gradual progressive enlargement of the lymphatic glands beginning usually in the cervical region and spreading throughout lymphoid tissue of the body, forming nodular growths in the internal organs, resulting in anemia and usually a fatal cachexia."" The characteristic histopathologic abnormality in this disorder is a polycellular infiltrate composed of giant (Reed-Sternberg) cells, lymphocytes, plasma cells, monocytes, eosinophils, and neutrophils, all of which are associated with a variable degree of fibrosis and necrosis.