Granuloma

Granuloma
Picture of a granuloma (without necrosis) as seen through a microscope on a glass slide. The tissue on the slide is stained with two standard dyes (hematoxylin: blue, eosin: pink) to make it visible. The granuloma in this picture was found in a lymph node of a patient with Mycobacterium avium infection
Classification and external resources
Specialty	Pathology
ICD-10	L92
ICD-9-CM	686.1, 709.4
MeSH	D006099
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Granuloma is an inflammation found in many diseases. It is a collection of immune cells known as histiocytes (macrophages). Granulomas form when the immune system attempts to wall off substances it perceives as foreign but is unable to eliminate. Such substances include infectious organisms including bacteria and fungi, as well as other materials such as keratin and suture fragments.

In pathology, a granuloma is an organized collection of macrophages.

In medical practice, doctors occasionally use the term "granuloma" loosely to mean "a small nodule". Since a small nodule can represent anything from a harmless nevus to a malignant tumor, this usage of the term is not very specific. Examples of the inaccurate use of the term granuloma are the lesions known as vocal cord granuloma, pyogenic granuloma and intubation granuloma, all of which are examples of granulation tissue, not granulomas. "Pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma" is a lesion characterized by keloid-like fibrosis in the lung, and is not granulomatous. Similarly, radiologists often use the term granuloma when they see a calcified nodule on X-ray or CT scan of the chest. They make this assumption since granulomas usually contain calcium, although the cells that form a granuloma are too tiny to be seen by a radiologist. The most accurate use of the term "granuloma" requires a pathologist to examine surgically removed and specially colored (stained) tissue under a microscope.

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