This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Histiocytosis X

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Langerhans cell histiocytosis is a group of syndromes of unknown aetiology characterised by the development of granulomatous lesions with abnormal proliferation of histiocytes. The abnormal histiocytic cell in this disease had been identified as the Langerhans cell. This condition represents a disorder of regulation of of the normal proliferation of histiocytes.

Pulmonary lesions are the commonest manifestation followed by bone involvement.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis includes a variety of clinical syndromes including, in decreasing severity:

  • Letterer-Siwe disease
  • Hand-Schuller-Christian disease
  • eosinophilic granuloma of bone

These disorders were previously refered to as histiocytosis X, but are now categorised under the term Langerhans cell histiocytosis to reflect the cell type responsible for the histiocytosis.


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page