A patient can have very limited involvement in only one part of the body, or involvement in many different sites.  Usually the disease is more serious when several sites are affected and the patient is a young infant.  The following symptoms may indicate disease involvement. Histiocytosis varies greatly from patient to patient, and you may not experience any or all of these symptoms.

• Skin Involvement
  Scaly, waxy rash that does not respond to treatment.
  
  
• Bone Involvement
  Single or multiple lesions, bone pain, headaches (skull lesions), and limp (leg lesions).
  
  
• Gastrointestinal Involvement
  Abdominal pain and jaundice, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding from the esophagus, and weight loss.
  
  
• Pituitary Gland Involvement (known as Diabetes Insipidus)
  Dehydration, polydipsia (excessive thirst), polyuria (excessive urination), short stature, and delayed puberty.
  
  
• Pulmonary Involvement
  Feeding problems (infants), vomiting, diarrhea, chest pain, labored breathing, failure to thrive, cough, coughing blood, and weight loss.
  
  
• Brain Involvement
  Mental deterioration, diabetes insipidus, headaches, dizziness, seizures, abnormal protrusion of eyeballs, difficulty swallowing, and vomiting.
  
  
• Mouth Involvement
  Pain and swelling of face, loosening and loss of teeth, swollen gums with hemorrhage, and swollen lymph nodes in neck.
  
  
• Ear Involvement
  Inflamed condition of ear canal, rash behind ear or on scalp, formation of cysts in the ear, and oozing from ear (foul-smelling discharge).
  
  
• Organ Involvement
  Lung, liver, or spleen dysfunction.
  
  
• Eye Involvement
  Vision problems or eye bulging.
  

Also, general symptoms like fever, weakness, and failure to gain weight may be present.  All patients do not have all of the above involvement.  It is difficult, if not impossible, for a physician to say with certainty how each patient will respond to therapy.