Significance of Hematoxylin Bodies in Lupus Erythematosus Cell Preparations

Abstract

Review of 14,000 lupus erythematosus (LE) tests performed on 3,000 patients showed that extracellular hematoxylin bodies occurred at least once in negative LE tests on 358 patients. Homogeneous round hematoxylin bodies occurred in one control and 258 patients, mostly those with rheumatic disorders. They resembled LE cell inclusion bodies except for their extracellular location, occurring in 116 (23%) of 502 patients with proved SLE including 33 (6.6%) who never showed LE cells. Of the 258 patients, 45% had proved SLE, 46% had variants of SLE or rheumatoid arthritis, 5% had alcoholic cirrhosis or myeloma, while 4% remained unclassified or incompletely studied. The rotary LE method enhanced hematoxylin body formation. Phase contrast microscopy suggested that some LE negative sera from proved SLE patients formed LE-like cells which apparently disintegrated during fixation and staining to yield only hematoxylin bodies.