A 60-year-old man has slowly enlarging scaly skin plaques over the trunk progressing over five years, now with generalized erythroderma and circulating atypical cells with convoluted, cerebriform nuclei. Skin biopsy shows infiltration of the epidermis by these cells forming collections within spongiotic epidermis. What are these intraepidermal collections called?

• A Warthin-Finkeldey giant cells
• B Munro microabscesses
• C Dutcher bodies
• D Pautrier microabscesses ✓

Explanation

Mycosis fungoides progressing to Sezary syndrome shows epidermotropic malignant T helper cells, and small clusters of these cerebriform cells within the epidermis form Pautrier microabscesses, the histologic hallmark. Munro microabscesses are collections of neutrophils in the stratum corneum of psoriasis. Dutcher bodies are intranuclear pseudoinclusions seen in plasma cell neoplasms, and Warthin-Finkeldey cells occur in measles and some lymphoproliferative disorders.

Reference: Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 10th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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