Table 1.

Causes of granulomatous and/or necrotizing lymphadenitis, with or without suppuration

	Granulomas	Necrosis	Suppuration
A. Infections
Viruses	–	+	–
(EBV, CMV, HBV, HCV, Herpes simplex, Adenovirus, HIV)
Bacteria
Yersinia pseudotuberculosis	+	+	+
Bartonella	+	+	+
Tropheryma whipplei	+	–	–
Francisella tularensis	+	+	+
Brucella	+	+	+
Spirochaetes
Treponema pallidum	+	+	+
Chlamydia
Lymphogranuloma venereum	+	+	+
Rickettsia
Coxiella burnetii	+	–	–
Mycobacteria
Mycobacterium tuberculosis	+	+	+
Atypical mycobacterial infection	+	+	+
Mycobacterium leprae	+	+	+
Parasites
Toxoplasmosis	+	±	+
Leishmaniasis	+	–	–
Fungi
Histoplasmosis	+	+	+
Aspergillosis	+	–	–
Coccidioidomycosis	+	+	+
Cryptococcosis	+	+	+
B. Neoplastic diseases
Hodgkin disease	+	+	±
Non-Hodgkin disease	±	+	±
Metastatic carcinoma	+	+	±
Langerhans cell histiocytosis	+	–	–
Seminoma	+	–	–
Dysgerminoma	+	–	–
C. Autoimmune diseases
Systemic lupus erythematosus	–	+	–
Granulomatosis with polyangiitis	+	+	+
Churg–Strauss syndrome	+	+	–
Celiac disease	+	–	–
Crohn’s disease	+	–	–
Primary biliary cirrhosis	+	+	–
Kawasaki disease	–	+	+
D. Idiopathic diseases
Sarcoidosis	+	–	–
Necrotic sarcoid granulomatosis	+	+	–
Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease	+	+	–
E. Autoinflammatory diseases
Familial Mediterranean fever	–	+	–
Hyperimmunoglobulinemia-D syndrome	no data	no data	no data
PFAPA syndrome	–	±	±

Note: ± indicates the potential existence of the corresponding histological feature, which is however non-typical for this disease.

CMV, Cytomegalovirus; EBV, Epstein–Barr virus; HBV, Hepatitis B; HCV, Hepatitis C; HIV, Human immunodeficiency virus; PFAPA, Periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and adenitis.