Histologic observations of variably acid-fast coccoid forms suggestive of cell wall deficient bacteria in Hodgkin's disease: a report of four cases.

The microscopic sections of biopsy material derived from four patients diagnosed at having Hodgkin's disease (HD), including two necropsied cases, were all studied for the presence of acid-fast cell wall deficient (CWD) bacteria. Variably acid-fast and variably sized coccoid forms, suggestive of CWD bacteria, were observed in the pathologically altered tissue and also in some histologically "normal" microscopic sections. This findings of bacteria in vivo in HD may relate to the previously reported findings of cocci, non-acid-fast and acid-fast bacteria (especially Mycobacterium tuberculosis) in HD, and may also relate to the previously reported findings of similar microbes in certain neoplastic, lymphoproliferative, and collagen diseases.