Disorders of Pigmentation

Question 1

Vitiligo (chronic loss of epidermal melanocytes)

• which antibody could you find in the serum?
• what other diseases is this associated with
• most common age/race?
• what’s the weird lamp you see this with?

Answer 1

• melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1
• pernicious anemia and hashimoto’s thyroiditis
• 2nd and 3rd decades, african americans
• woods lamp

Question 2

Freckle aka ephelis, ephelides

-which layer is hyper pigmented?

Answer 2

-basal

Question 3

Lentigo

• size
• which layer in darkened?
• do they get darker with sun exposure?

Answer 3

• small, less than 2 cm
• melanocytes, just above the basal cell layer
• no

Question 4

melanocytic nevi (moles)

• are they variable in color distribution?
• what two factors do they vary in?
• which layer are they found in?
• where do the melanocytes go in their lifecycle?
  1) junctional nevus:
  2) compound nevus:
  3) intradermal nevus:

Answer 4

• NO
• darkness and flatness
• dermal-epidermal junction
• start at the BM, work their way deep into the dermis, causing a vertical growth phase
• melanocytic nests at the dermal epidermal junction
• more dome shaped, have nests and cords in the underlying dermis
• there are no melanocytic nests

Question 5

Spitz nevus

• composition
• what are Kamino bodies and where are they found?
• what color are they

Answer 5

• spindle/epithelioid cells
• eosinophilic melanocytes along dermal-epidermal jxn
• deep red, confused with hemangiomas

Question 6

dysplastic/atypical nevus

• border appearance
• usual type
• cytologic atypia

Answer 6

• fading, fried egg
• compound, concentric papillary dermal fibrosis
• hyperchromatic, elarged nuclei