Lymphadenopathy - Toxoplasma

Dear Ask The Doctor: I have noticed the swollen node on my neck last week and been to a doctor at the weekend. He has done an endoscopy, blood test , sedimentation, and a neck ultrasonography and a lung x-ray graphy. I have gathered them all, which eliminated the chances of lymphoma or an acute infection or cat scratch. He did not give me any medication, but told me not to touch the swollen glands and asked me to come back if they grow more or cause any pain. By the way Ultrasonography shown I had 5 reactive lymphadenopathies. Now as far as I try to follow, I can see some growth and feel new glands on other side,too. Felt some very slight pain, thinking it is psychological. Now we noticed my husband was mentioning some slight pain on his neck, recently without any swollen glands. And our cat had started to be out during day time, and we stay at the same room with the cat and litter at night. Do you think it could be toxoplasma? If so, does it mean it is more severe with me that I have these swollen glands, and will my lymph nodes be back to normal without any treatment?

Dear Seckin:

I understand how concerned you are about your inflamed lymph nodes. Surely if you own a cat, one of the probable cause might be Toxoplasmosis. However let me reassure you that if that were the case and if you are not pregnant and generally you are healthy then you might probably not need medications and the symptoms would resolve in 2 to 4 week.

There are many causes of lymph nodes, commonly due to viral and bacterial infections of the respiratory tract, in the case of toxoplasmosis also flu like signs and symptoms are present and this is the reason that is difficult to diagnose. If you want to rule out this possibility, your doctor might ask for Antibodies to Toxoplasma to confirm it. Treatment might or not be given after an evaluation.