Kimura disease

What it is

A rare systemic disease characterized by chronic inflammation of unknown etiology and occurring predominantly in males in the second to third decades of life, mainly in Southeast Asian countries. Patients present with painless soft tissue swelling most commonly involving the head and neck region, usually with salivary gland involvement (parotid and submandibular glands) and regional lymphadenopathy. Frequent laboratory findings are peripheral eosinophilia and raised serum IgE. The diagnosis is confirmed histopathologically by the presence of well-formed lymphoid follicles with eosinophilic infiltration and vascular proliferation in the biopsy.

Key facts

Prevalence

<1 / 1 000 000

Age of onset

Adult

Inheritance

Unknown

Classified as

Disease

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Cross-references