Today at conference we had a patient presenting with ascites. Most ascites cases are from portal hypertension but 10% are from malignancy. They were found to have Burkitt’s lymphoma, a rare form of highly aggressive lymphoma.
Teaching points:
-
Remember that ascites is not always secondary to portal hypertension from cirrhosis. It usually is. But not always
-
A cell count, total protein and albumin level would differentiate the etiologies of ascites in most cases
-
Recognize the key differences between indolent, aggressive and very aggressive lymphomas
-
Understand the unique pathophysiology of Burkitt’s Lymphoma and remember it is one of the tumors / conditions highly associated with spontaneous TLS
burkitt – 10.14.2019
