Congenital giant melanocytic nevus with pigmented epithelioid cells: a variant of epithelioid blue nevus.

Abstract

Epithelioid-cell blue nevus is an unusual cytologic variant of blue nevus that has been recently described mostly in patients with Carney complex, although the lesion may also appear in patients with no evidence of Carney complex. This variant of blue nevus is composed of melanin laden large polygonal epithelioid melanocytes situated within the dermis. The neoplastic cells show no maturation with progressive descent and, in contrast with the usual stromal changes in blue nevi, epithelioid-cell blue nevus exhibits no dermal fibrosis. This report describes a congenital giant melanocytic nevus with pigmented epithelioid cells located on the back of a 2-year-old male. The lesion was present at birth and the patient had no evidence of Carney complex. Histopathologically, the lesion consisted of a large and entirely intradermal melanocytic nevus composed of heavily pigmented epithelioid melanocytes involving the full-thickness of dermis, but extending also to the subcutaneous fat and underlying soft tissues. Immunohistochemically, epithelioid neoplastic melanocytes expressed immunoreactivity for S-100 protein, HMB-45, Melan-A, NK1C3, and microphthalmia transcription factor (MiTF) antibodies. MIB-1 cellular proliferation marker was expressed in the nuclei of only a few scattered epithelioid melanocytes. This report demonstrates that epithelioid-cell blue nevus is a distinctive histopathologic variant of blue nevus that may also appear as a giant congenital melanocytic nevus.