For a study, the thorax was occasionally implicated in illnesses that manifested largely in extrathoracic sites, screening chest imaging tests for asymptomatic individuals was common. A variety of conditions, including malignancies and noninfectious inflammatory disorders such as sarcoidosis and connective tissue diseases, that largely manifested outside the thorax had subclinical thoracic involvement. Rosai-Dorfman’s illness was one of the most uncommon forms of asymptomatic thoracic involvement in the setting of a predominantly extrathoracic ailment. Rosai-Dorfman’s illness was a rare, nonmalignant polyclonal histiocyte condition that usually affects lymph node sinuses and extranodal lymphatic tissue in young people. The illness was idiopathic, while several etiologies were hypothesized, including an infectious origin and an autoimmune etiology. Rosai-Dorfman disease had histopathologic features such as emperipolesis (the presence of intact cells within the cytoplasm of other cells, most common histiocytes in this context) and positive histiocytic cell surface staining for S-100, CD68, CD14, and CD15, with no staining for factor XIIIa or MHC-2. Rosai-Dorfman’s illness was frequently seen as painless cervical lymphadenopathy.
The thorax may be impacted more frequently than previously thought, appearing as peribronchial and/or mediastinal lymphadenopathy, with tracheal lesions, interstitial infiltration, and pleural illness conceivable but uncommon. Rosai-Dorfman’s illness was often diagnosed by recognizing the characteristic clinical appearance and histopathologic study of the afflicted tissue. Treatment was rarely necessary, as the condition occasionally resolves on its own. Corticosteroid medication was often utilized when therapy was necessary, with immunosuppression employed in more resistant instances. Rosai-Dorfman’s illness had a favorable prognosis.
