White : Diseases of the Skin - Cellular and Metabolic Cutaneous Infiltrates

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Gary M. White & Neil H. Cox

Diseases of the Skin

11	Cellular and Metabolic Cutaneous Infiltrates

INTRODUCTION

All inflammatory and papulosquamous disorders include a component of inflammatory inﬁltrate, but most can be allocated to either a more precise morphologic classiﬁcation (such as eczema or psoriasis) or classiﬁed by cause (e.g. inflammation due to infection).

Some patterns of tissue reaction are usefully grouped together according to the major component of the cutaneous inﬁltrate. Examples include:

•	neutrophilic inﬁltrates (see Ch.14),
•	eosinophilic tissue reactions,
•	lymphocytic inﬁltrates,
•	granulomatous inﬁltrates,
•	mast cell inﬁltrates,
•	lhistiocytic inﬁltrates,
•	xanthomatous inﬁltrates,
•	mucinous inﬁltrates,
•	amyloid deposition, and
•	other metabolic deposits (e.g. calcium deposition and gout).

These disorders are the subject of this chapter. However, as indicated, the neutrophilic infiltrates are discussed in Chapter.14, as their histologic pattern may overlap with that of the common neutrophilic vasculitides. There is also some degree of overlap with other chapters; for example, mucinosis associated with thyroid disease and calcinosis associated with renal failure are considered in Chapter.12 (Cutaneous signs associated with disease of internal organ systems, and dermatoses of pregnancy). A diverse group of benign lymphocytic infiltrates are considered here; cutaneous lymphoma and its precursors are discussed in Chapter.33.

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