Revision of lymphadenopathy
In revising a couple terms associated with lymphadenopathy it was noticed that 1. Lymphadenopathy (disorder) is primitive. 2. Lymphadenopathy is defined in most medical dictionaries as "enlargement" yet is not defined with an ASSOCIATED MORPHOLOGY = Enlargement. Should we revise the modeling of lymphadenopathy and its subtypes to include enlargement, which would allow many concepts to become fully defined and improve the inferences amongst some of the existing content?
Comments
Bruce,
I agree that Lymphadenopathy is a more generic term and that there is often a conflation between "enlargement" and "disorder". Many of the existing lymphadenopathy synonyms are specific to enlargement (e.g. "Swelling of lymph nodes", "Swollen lymph glands, etc.). So, if we take the strict view that Lymphadenopathy represents any change from normal, then we would need to remove these synonyms and create a new concept "Enlargement of lymph node" to specify this one aspect. Many of the regional lymph node concepts do not expressly state enlargement, so they would be siblings to this term.
I think "enlargement of lymph node" is a better FSN than lymphadenopathy in that it clearly indicates what most interpret as lymphadenopathy. Lymphadenopathy could be changed to the preferred term or another synonym.
On the other hand,
Lymph node enlargement is often used synonymously with lymphadenopathy, which is not strictly correct.
Terminology
Lymphadenopathy is, if anything, a broader term, referring to any pathology of lymph nodes, not necessarily resulting in increased size. Indeed abnormal number of nodes, or derangement of internal architecture (e.g. cystic necrotic nodes). In addition, increase in size is not always pathologic; some nodes are bigger than other normally (e.g compare jugulodigastric nodes, to mesenteric nodes), and reactive nodes are a healthy response and do not imply pathology of the node itself.
http://radiopaedia.org/articles/lymph-node-enlargement