Saw a 54 year-old woman today who presented 2 days ago with fatigue, weight loss and exertional dyspnoea. Then a massive lump appeared around her right eye. The doctor explained some things about her but, it all being in French, I didn't catch a lot of it. I think she has sarcoidosis. The swelling around her eye is due to blockage of her lacrimal duct, but it wasn't really clear to me whether this was part of the sarcoidosis. I think they wanted to do a biopsy to see if there was some granulomatous business going on around her eye, which I guess would be supportive of some secondary effect of sarcoidosis. She didn't seem that keen on the idea.
Then people were talking a lot about something called Mikulicz syndrome, which I'd never heard of. As far as I can tell I think this is an (outdated) descriptive term for any swelling affecting the parotid or lacrimal ducts - originally described as a symptom of lymphoma. But then there's some mention of it being a synonym for Sjogren's syndrome... which would usually be bilateral, and involve other stuff like dry mouth and eyes.
Confusing. Tomorrow I will try to find out more..
Then people were talking a lot about something called Mikulicz syndrome, which I'd never heard of. As far as I can tell I think this is an (outdated) descriptive term for any swelling affecting the parotid or lacrimal ducts - originally described as a symptom of lymphoma. But then there's some mention of it being a synonym for Sjogren's syndrome... which would usually be bilateral, and involve other stuff like dry mouth and eyes.
Confusing. Tomorrow I will try to find out more..
This is interesting and important news Kieran, however I think you have failed to make this obscure and confusing enough for the layman. Any more serious medical postings to be in Welsh please and/or upside down.
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