Available online at www.medicinescience.org CASE REPORT Medicine Science 201.;.(.):. Russell body cervicitis: A case report and literature review Eren Altun 1 , Gulden Turhan 1 , Mine Islimye Taskin 2 1 Balikesir University Faculty of Medicine Department of Medical Pathology, Balikesir, Turkey 2 Balikesir University Faculty of Medicine Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Balikesir, Turkey Received 18 May 2017; Accepted 21 July 2017 Available online 25.12.2017 with doi: 10.5455/medscience.2017.06.8709 Abstract Russell bodies are prominent eosinophilic inclusions seen in the cytoplasm of plasma cells and sometimes outside the cell. There are very few publications available in the English literature on Russell Body Cervicitis. Our case is a 40 year old female patient with a positive screening test for HPV DNA. The cervical surface epithelium in biopsy specimens obtained from the cervix completely have eroded intense vesicular eccentric nuclei and large eosinophilic cytoplasm containing focal Russell Body. The infltration of dense plasma cells were observed. Our case is the fourth case in the English literature. The case is rare and the etiology has not yet been elucidated. Keywords: Russell bodies, cervicitis, plasma cells Medicine Science International Medical Journal 1 Introduction The cervix is known to include lymphocyte and plasma cells that are thought to be part of normal mucosal immunity in healthy females [1-2]. Cervicitis is characterized by noticeable chronic gleet along with a varying neutrophil polymorph reaction [3]. This disease can develop due to the presence of a large number of organisms, and it has a non-infective etiology [4]. However, the histological changes observed in most patients are non-specifc [4]. Russell bodies are eosinophilic inclusions that occur in the cytoplasm of plasma cells, and sometimes in extracellular mediums; their immunoglobulin accumulation is conspicuous [5]. Russell bodies were frst described in 1890 by Russell as inclusion involving immunoglobulin induced by the abnormal secretion of plasma cells characterized by the ribosomal endoplasmic reticulum [6]. In Russell body cervicitis, the plasma cells are flled with Russell bodies. This condition has also been reported in chronic infammatory reactions due to its long-term antigenic stimulations, much as in chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis, as well as in neoplastic processes like plasmacytoma and B-cell lymphomas [7-8]. In 1998, Tazawa and Tsutsumi also reported on Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections in gastric mucosa, and they frst described it *Coresponding Author: Eren Altun, Balikesir University Faculty of Medicine De- partment of Medical Pathology, Balikesir, Turkey E-mail: erenaltun@hotmail.com as Russell body gastritis [9]. Russell body cells have been reported to rarely accompany ophthalmitis, esophagitis, gingivitis, gastritis, cervicitis, dermatitis, duodenum ulcers [10-20]. We know of only a few studies that have reported that Russell body cells can occur in cervicitis. The fact that cervicitis, characterized by Russell body particles and the ensuing infammatory reactions and accompanying fndings, has been rarely reported inspired us to present our case report under the category of Russell body cervicitis. For the present study, we scrutinized the literature published in English between 1969 and 2017 (Google Academic and Pub-Med databases) and we included 35 case reports and one article in our paper (Table 1). Case Study A 40-year-old woman was admitted to the clinic at our university for inpatient care due to positive results for a HPV- DNA screening test. Re-evaluation of the patient revealed that she had HPV-66 in her cervix. However, during our clinical examination the appearance of her cervix looked suspicious even though her cervical smear had previously been evaluated as normal. A cervical biopsy was obtained through colposcopy and sent to the pathology laboratory. Macroscopic analysis showed a 4–5 mm grey-white material in the biopsy. In the microscopic analysis, we observed plasma cell infammation characterized by a dense vesicular, eccentric nucleus and enlarged eosinophilic cytoplasm that had totally eroded the cervical epithelial surface (Figure 1 and Figure 2). The patient was diagnosed with Russell body cervicitis, and she did not report recurring symptoms during the one-year follow-up period.