Lymphedema: Or something else? Differential Diagnosis

Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).

Cardiovascular system (I00-I99)

  • Podoconiosis (Greek. πούς, genitive ποδός “foot” and κονία, konia “dust”; synonyms: endemic non-filarial elephantiasis, “mossy foot” disease, elephant foot disease, or Price’s disease (“Price’s disease”)) – noninfectious type of elephantiasis; microparticles found in soils with a high content of red laterites of volcanic origin are ingested subcutaneously by people who walk barefoot a lot. In the further course, these are detectable in the macrophages (scavenger cells) in the lymph nodes, where they lead to inflammation and fibrosis. This eventually leads to lymphatic drainage congestion; Occurrence: Ethiopia, Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda; in Ethiopia, podoconiosis is endemic in one-fifth of the country and is far more common in endemic areas than AIDS.
  • Thrombosisocclusion of a vein, leading to congestion of the blood.

Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).

  • Infections, unspecified

Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99)

  • Edema (water retention in tissues), unspecified.