A form of angiofollicular lymphoid hyperplasia characterized by fever, generalized lymphadenopathy, hypergammaglobulinemia, and dysfunction of multiple organs. Other signs and symptoms include anemia, thrombocytopenia, hepatomegaly, peripheral neuropathy and pleural effusions. Morphologically, in the majority of cases the lymph nodes show features of angiofollicular lymphoid hyperplasia of the plasma cell type. In a minority of cases, changes of angiofollicular lymphoid hyperplasia of the hyaline-vascular type are seen. In contrast to patients with localized disease who are usually cured following resection of the lesion, patients with the multicentric form of the disease may follow a progressive clinical course, complicated by infection, Kaposi sarcoma, or lymphoma. [from
NCI]