Dermatopathology

Atypical fibroxanthoma (AFX) is a dermal mesenchymal neoplasm arising in sun-damaged skin, primarily of the head and neck region of older men. Conservative excision cures most. However, varying degrees of subcutaneous involvement can lead to a more aggressive course and rare metastases. Thus, AFX involving the subcutis are termed pleomorphic dermal sarcomas or other monikers by some to recognize the more threatening natural history. We reviewed cases of "metastatic AFX" from our institution and from the files of a consultative dermatopathology practice...

BACKGROUND: Autologous native cartilage from the nasal septum, ear, or rib is the standard material for surgical reconstruction of the nasal alar lobule after two-layer excision of non-melanoma skin cancer. We assessed whether engineered autologous cartilage grafts allow safe and functional alar lobule restoration. METHODS: In a first-in-human trial, we recruited five patients at the University Hospital Basel (Basel, Switzerland). To be eligible, patients had to be aged at least 18 years and have a two-layer defect (≥50% size of alar subunit) after excision of non-melanoma skin cancer on the alar lobule...

BACKGROUND: One significant risk factor for recurrence after Mohs surgery is misinterpretation of slides. OBJECTIVES: To determine how often pathologists detected incompletely excised basal cell carcinoma (BCC) on Mohs slides and to determine risk factors for incompletely excised BCCs. METHODS: This retrospective study included 1653 BCCs treated with Mohs surgery in a university hospital between 2007 and 2011. For routine quality assurance, all slides were additionally reviewed by a pathologist within 1 week of the procedure...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

: Dermatopathology has relatively few studies regarding teledermatopathology and none have addressed the use of new technologies, such as the tablet PC. We hypothesized that the combination of our existing dynamic nonrobotic system with a tablet PC could provide a novel and cost-efficient method to remotely diagnose dermatopathology cases. 93 cases diagnosed by conventional light microscopy at least 5 months earlier by the participating dermatopathologist were retrieved by an electronic pathology database search...

: Although tattooing is an ancient practice, its increasing popularity and social acceptance, variability of tattoo ink composition, sporadic reports of novel tattoo reactions and advances in the field of tattoo removal techniques make it a topic of immense interest among dermatologists and pathologists alike. Since effective legislation governing the tattoo industry is largely lacking in most regions of the world, it is important to recognize the range of tattoo-related complications from a dermatopathological perspective...

Organ transplant recipients (OTR) are at a significantly increased risk for developing a wide variety of skin cancers, particularly epithelial skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma and Kaposi's sarcoma. Melanoma, skin adnexal neoplasm and cutaneous lymphomas are also more common in OTR and may differ in their clinicopathologic presentation from tumors in immunocompetent patients. The accuracy of clinical diagnosis of suspected premalignant and malignant skin lesions in OTR is modest. Therefore, histopathological diagnosis is an essential element for the diagnostic workup of skin cancers and, in addition, provides important information on prognosis...

A variety of pathologic variants of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) has been reported, and the signet-ring variant of cutaneous SCC is extremely uncommon. We reported an 83-year-old man with signet-ring SCC arising on the back of the finger. As far as we know, only 4 cases have been described in detail, and one dermatopathologic report focused on the presence of signet-ring cells briefly described in clinical data of 6 cases. Interestingly, in these reports, the skin lesions of 10 cases occurred exclusively in the head and neck area...

BACKGROUND: Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) allows for non-invasive, in vivo evaluation of skin lesions and it has been extensively applied in skin oncology although systematic studies on nevi characterization are still lacking. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether reliable RCM correlates to histological features used to diagnose melanocytic neoplasms exist. METHODS: We blindly evaluated the RCM and histological features of 64 melanocytic neoplasms (19 non-dysplastic nevi, 27 dysplastic nevi, 14 melanomas) and analysed the data using Spearman's rho calculation...

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory multi organ disease with well characterized pathology occurring in the skin and often the joints. Although the disease has many characteristic and even pathognomonic features, no established diagnostic criteria exist for cutaneous psoriasis and there is no unified classification for the clinical spectrum of the disease. Prior approaches that have been taken to classify psoriasis include age of onset, severity of the disease, and morphologic evaluation. The latter has yielded plaque, guttate, pustular, and erythrodermic as subtypes of psoriasis...

Diagnosis of inflammatory diseases of the skin is vexing for general surgical pathologists. There is considerable overlap in histologic features, and the terminology in dermatopathology often seems impenetrable. This course will cover a wide range of inflammatory diseases of the skin that may be encountered by the germinal surgical pathologist. A practical approach utilising reaction patterns will be emphasised, including spongiotic, psoriasiform, interface, perivascular, nodular, palisading granulomatous, panniculitis, and bullous diseases...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Maintaining patient identity throughout the biopsy pathway is critical for the practice of dermatology and dermatopathology. From the biopsy procedure to the acquisition of the pathology report, a specimen may pass through the hands of more than twenty individuals in several workplaces. The risk of a mix-up is considerable and may account for more serious mistakes than diagnostic errors. To prevent specimen mix-up, work processes should be standardized and automated wherever possible, e.g., by strict order in the operating room and in the laboratory and by adoption of a bar code system to identify specimens and corresponding request forms...

Balloon cell melanoma is a rare melanoma subtype, with only one previous case with dermatoscopy published. It is often non-pigmented, leading to diagnostic difficulty, and there is a tendency for lesions to be thick at diagnosis. We report a case of balloon cell melanoma on the forearm of a 61-year-old man with both polarized and non-polarized dermatoscopy and dermatopathology. It presented as a firm pale nodule with focal eccentric pigmentation. The clinical images evoke a differential diagnosis of dermatofibroma, dermal nevus, Spitz nevus and basal cell carcinoma as well as melanoma...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The expansion of telemedicine nationwide has resulted in many states adopting specific telemedicine regulations to avoid the issue of requiring a full medical license to practice telemedicine. How these laws and regulations relate to the practice of telepathology and teledermatology has not been well delineated. It is important to understand these regulations to avoid potential judicial penalties arising from non-compliance. This article aims to outline state-specific telemedicine regulations and penalties.

Multiple criteria on routinely stained sections allow one to make a diagnosis of a dysplastic or "Clark" nevus (CN) versus melanoma in situ (MIS), and one of these is suprabasal spread of melanocytes. The extent of suprabasal spread of melanocytes in otherwise conventional CN and the combination of a sensitive marker of melanocytes combined with Ki-67 to assess the differences between the proliferation of melanocytes at the junction and those above it have not yet been studied. Fifty classic examples of CN and 27 cases of MIS were culled from the files of a university-based dermatopathology practice...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of nodular melanoma (NM) has been consistently described as at least 10-15% of total melanomas for over 15 years despite advances in diagnostic algorithms and medical technology. NMs are strongly correlated with faster rates of growth and poorer prognosis and thus provide clinicians with a challenge for early recognition. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate diagnostic clues of consecutive histopathologically proven NMs in one general practice with particular emphasis on dermatoscopic characteristics and compare this to the published literature...

Primary cutaneous nodular amyloidosis (PCNA) presents as solitary or multiple firm, waxy nodules with a predilection for acral areas. Histologically, PCNA can be identical to myeloma-associated systemic amyloidosis with monoclonal immunoglobulin light chain deposits. We describe a patient in whom PCNA developed in a scar in an area affected by chronic plaque psoriasis. PCNA has previously been associated with other autoimmune diseases, but to our knowledge, this is the first association with psoriasis. Interestingly, T helper (Th)17 cells, which are crucial in psoriasis pathogenesis, have recently been implicated in promotion of myeloma and plasma cell dyscrasias...