The histiocytosis-lymphadenopathy plus syndrome comprises features of 4 histiocytic disorders previously thought to be distinct: Faisalabad histiocytosis (FHC), sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy (SHML), H syndrome, and pigmented hypertrichosis with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus syndrome (PHID). FHC was described as an autosomal recessive disease involving joint deformities, sensorineural hearing loss, and subsequent development of generalized lymphadenopathy and swellings in the eyelids that contain histiocytes (summary by Morgan et al., 2010). SHML, or familial Rosai-Dorfman disease, was described as a rare cause of lymph node enlargement in children, consisting of chronic massive enlargement of cervical lymph nodes frequently accompanied by fever, leukocytosis, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia. Extranodal sites were involved in approximately 25% of patients, including salivary glands, orbit, eyelid, spleen, and testes. The involvement of retropharyngeal lymphoid tissue sometimes caused snoring and sleep apnea (summary by Kismet et al., 2005). H syndrome was characterized by cutaneous hyperpigmentation and hypertrichosis, hepatosplenomegaly, heart anomalies, and hypogonadism; hearing loss was also found in about half of patients, and many had short stature. PHID was characterized by predominantly antibody-negative insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus associated with pigmented hypertrichosis and variable occurrence of other features of H syndrome, with hepatosplenomegaly occurring in about half of patients (Cliffe et al., 2009). Bolze et al. (2012) noted that mutations in the SLC29A3 gene (612373) had been implicated in H syndrome, PHID, FHC, and SHML, and that some patients presented a combination of features from 2 or more of these syndromes, leading to the suggestion that these phenotypes should be grouped together as 'SLC29A3 disorder.' Bolze et al. (2012) suggested that the histologic features of the lesions seemed to be the most uniform phenotype in these patients. In addition, the immunophenotype of infiltrating cells in H syndrome patients was shown to be the same as that seen in patients with the familial form of Rosai-Dorfman disease, further supporting the relationship between these disorders (Avitan-Hersh et al., 2011; Colmenero et al., 2012).

Immunodeficiency-27A (IMD27A) results from autosomal recessive (AR) IFNGR1 deficiency. Patients with complete IFNGR1 deficiency have a severe clinical phenotype characterized by early and often fatal mycobacterial infections. The disorder can thus be categorized as a form of mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial disease (MSMD). Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) and environmental mycobacteria are the most frequent pathogens, and infection typically begins before the age of 3 years. Plasma from patients with complete AR IFNGR1 deficiency usually contains large amounts of IFNG (147570), and their cells do not respond to IFNG in vitro. In contrast, cells from patients with partial AR IFNGR1 deficiency, which is caused by a specific mutation in IFNGR1, retain residual responses to high IFNG concentrations. Patients with partial AR IFNGR1 deficiency are susceptible to BCG and environmental mycobacteria, but they have a milder clinical disease and better prognosis than patients with complete AR IFNGR1 deficiency. The clinical features of children with complete AR IFNGR1 deficiency are usually more severe than those in individuals with AD IFNGR1 deficiency (IMD27B), and mycobacterial infection often occurs earlier (mean age of 1.3 years vs 13.4 years), with patients having shorter mean disease-free survival. Salmonellosis is present in about 5% of patients with AR or AD IFNGR1 deficiency, and other infections have been reported in single patients (review by Al-Muhsen and Casanova, 2008).