The Pathology of Systemic Fibroinflammatory Disorders

Abstract

The broad denomination of “systemic fibroinflammatory disorders” includes a series of exceedingly different lesions whose common morphologic characteristic is a local deposition of varying amounts of fibrous tissue and inflammatory infiltrates. From a histopathological standpoint, the main consequence of such a feature is the fact that the morphofunctional architecture of a given parenchyma (or complex structure) is partially or totally replaced by nonfunctioning tissues. This fact is especially critical in multifocal systemic disorders and, what’s more, in cases characterized by particular aggressiveness, as in neoplastic fibroinflammatory diseases. A further point to be highlighted is the relative slow turnover of the above-mentioned newly formed tissues, first and foremost fibrosis. This fact makes most of clinical treatments scarcely effective in helping to induce restitutio ad integrum of the affected anatomical locations. In this chapter, we have described the pathology of most of the fibroinflammatory disorders which are clinically discussed in the present textbook. The biological nature and pathogenesis of these lesions is highly different, ranging from still barely known diseases to iatrogenic disorders, autoimmune diseases, vasculitic forms, or neoplastic lesions.