General Flashcards
What are the four layers of the epidermis - in order.
- Stratum basale - basal layer
- Stratum spinosum - spinous layer
- Stratum granulosum - granular layer
- Stratum corneum - cornified layer
Where is the skin the thinnest?
Inguinal and axillary regions
What is unique about scrotal skin histologically?
- Thicker than haired skin
- Rete ridges
- Epidermal pigmentatin is prominent
- Few pilosebaceous units
- Smooth muscle bundles present in the dermis
What is unique about the footpads histologically?
- Very thick
- Marked rete ridge formation
- Multilayered stratum spinosum
- Two-or-three cell thick stratum granulosum
- Wide, compact stratum corneum
- No pilosebaceous units
- Atrichial (eccrine) glands present in panniculus
What is unique about the nasal planum histologically?
- Thick epidermis
- Rete ridges
- Laminated stratum corneum
- Thin or absent stratum granulosum
- Melanotic stratum spinosum
- No hair follicles or pilosebaceous units
- Prominent nerves and vessels
What are some tips to obtain a good biopsy?
- Multiple biopsies from several sites
- Primary lesions are much better than secondary
- 6mm or excisional biopsy are ideal
- Minimize operator-induced artifact
- Don’t surgically prepare the sites
- Give signalment, history, DDX, etc
Define epidermal hyperplasia.
Increase in the number of nucleated cells in the epidermis.
Define acanthosis
Epidermal hyperplasia, specifically hyperplasia of the stratum spinosum.
Does epidermal hyperplasia always indicate chronicity?
No.
Even superficial traumatic injury - like tape stripping - can induce a burst of mitotic activity in the transient amplifying cell population that results in acanthosis by 36-48 hours. You will probably see mitotic figures in the basal layer.
What are the four morphological types of epidermal hyperplasia?
- Irregular
- Regular
- Papillated
- Pseudocarcinomatous
Define irregular epidermal hyperplasia
Hyperplastic changes in which the rete ridges formed are uneven in shape and height. This is the most common form of epidermal hyperplasia.
Define regular epidermal hyperplasia
- Rete ridges are even in width and depth
- Uncommon
- Seen with lichenoid psoriasiform dermatosis of springer spaniels
- In humans, regular epidermal hyperplasia = psoriasiform hyperplasia
- Seen with psoriasis
Define papillated epidermal hyperplasia
Digitate projections of the epidermis
Seen with warts and papillomas
Seborrheic dermatitis
Callous
What is pseudocarcinomatous epidermal hyperplasia?
Extreme, irregular epidermal hyperplasia which is branched and fused. There are a bunch of rete ridges which branch and link up.
Define hypergranulosis
Increase in the width of the straytum granulosum
You will see a more dark blue granules of keratohyalin.
What is orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis?
Increased thickness of the stratum corneum
It is either because of an increase in the production of keratin, or a decrease in the normal attrition of the cornified layer.
Usually there is about 7-10 layers; don’t overinterpret this. In real life, there are usually 40+ layers to the stratum corneum.
If you see orthokeratosis without acanthosis, what should you suspect?
Disorders of keratinization, corneocyte adhesion or endocrine-related dermatoses.
What are the three morphological types of orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis?
- Basket-weave orthokeratosis
- Compact orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis
- Laminated orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis
What is basket weave orthokeratosis?
Excess of the normal type of keratin covering the haired parts of the body. This is an artifact of fixation. You will see this type of hyperkeratosis in endocrine skin disease, primary seborrhea or dermatphytosis.
What is compact orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis?
What is your top differential for it?
Loss of the basket weave, thick and packed keratin.
Seen with chronic low-grade trauma (licking) or on the footpads.
What conditions do you see laminated orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis?
Ichthyosis
What is parakeratotic hyperkeratosis? What does it indicate?
Thickened stratum corneum in which the nuclei of the keratinocytes are retained. Excess production of abnormally keratinized stratum corneum.
Indicates a failure of normal epidermal differentiation.
Give five examples of conditions where parakeratotic hyperkeratosis is seen.
- Zinc-responsive dermatosis
- Thallium toxicosis
- Superficial necrolytic dermatitis (hepatocutaneous)
- Lethal acrodermatitis of bull terriers
- Seborrheic diseases like Malassezia dermatitis
What is dyskeratosis?
Refers to premature keratinization of cells in the stratum spinosum. Often occurs in combination with parakeratosis - indicating an abnormality of epidermal differentiation.
This can be difficult to distunguish from apoptosis. The dyskeratotic keratinocytes have hypereosinophilic cytoplasm and degenerative changes of the nucleus. You should look at the picture as a whole to determine if apoptosis vs. dyskeratosis.
What are some conditions where you might expect epidermal dyskeratosis?
- Zinc-responsive dermatosis
- Some Vitamin A responsive dermatoses
- Epidermal neoplasia like SCC
What is another word for (INTERCELLULAR) epidermal edema?
Spongiosis
Spongiosis is refers to intercellular edema of the epidermis. Named for the spongy appearance which results from the separation of keratinocytes between edema fluid.
What does INTRAcellular epidermal edema represent?
Degenerative changes of the actual keratinocyte
What does epidermal pallor indicate?
This describes an edematous change that will usually affect the cells of the stratum spinosum. The affected cells are swollen with very pale eosinophilic cytoplasm. It doesn’t look like vacuoles, the cells just look a bit more eosinophilic.
You see this with zinc-responsive dermatosis and SND.
What is ballooning degeneration?
Swollen, acantholytic keratinocytes
Pale-staining swollen keratinocytes
Not common - pox virus, viral lesions
Discuss vacuolar alteration of the epidermis
This refers to multiple small vesicles above and below the basement membrane zone. Can be artifact, or a non-specific finding.
How do you differentiate a vesicle, bullae or microvesicle?
Vesicles < 1 cm
Bullae > 1 cm
Microvesicle - can’t see with naked eye
Can be see within the epidermis at any level or at any level of the dermoepidermal junction.
What is a cleft?
Empty, slit-like spaces that form within the epidermis or at the dermoepidermal junction.
These occur at areas of weakened keratinocyte adhesion between adjacent cells or between basal cells and basal lamina. Artifactual clefts usually occur at the edges of samples.
What is acantholysis?
Loss of cohesion among viable keratinocytes which an lead to formation of clefts, vesicles or bullae.
Often markers for immune-mediated lesions.
Loss of adhesion junctions.
What are pustules?
Intraepidermal or subepidermal accumulations of inflmmatory cells and fluis.
What is a Munro microabscess?
Desiccated accumulations of neutrophils in the stratum corneum. Suggestive of supefcicial microbial infection.
When do you tend to see eosinophilic pustules?
Parasitic diseases
Can also see with allergic, immune-mediated, microbial (Malassezia) and idiopathic skin diseases (sterile eosinophilic pustulosis).
What is Pautrier’s microabscess?
What disease do you see these with?
Mononuclear pustule. These microabscesses will contain cytologically atypical lymphocytes.
= CTCL
What is a crust? What are the types?
Previous episode of exudation. Desiccated conglomeration of clotted plasma proteins, leukocytes, erythrocytes, epithelial cells, +/- microorganisms.
- Serous crust
- Hemorrhagic crust
- Cellular crust
- Serocellular crust
- Palisading crust (dermatophytosis)
What is exocytosis?
Migration of leukocytes and erythrocytes into the epidermis.
When might you see:
- Neutrophilic exocytosis
- Lymphocytic exocytosis
- Eosinophilic exocytosis
- Mast cell exocytosis
- Erythrocytes?
- Neutrophils = acute exudative reactions
- Eosinophils = ectoparasites, allergy
- Lymphocytes = Seborrhea, Malassezia, atopy, ectoparasitism, immune-mediated (SLE), CTCL
- Mast cells = allergy, cats
- Erythrocytes = artifcat, coagulation, trauma