A case of epithelioid blue nevus.

Abstract

Although epithelioid blue nevus (EBN) is a rare variant of blue nevus that was first reported in patients with Carney complex, which encompasses cardiac and cutaneous myxomas, spotty skin pigmentation, endocrine overactivity, and psammomatous melanotic schwannomas [1], it has been also documented in the absence of such clinical features [2]. Histological characteristics of EBN are variably pigmented, large epithelioid melanocytes with vesicular nuclei and prominent eosinophilic nucleoli and a small number of melanophages that are sometimes associated with a few pigmented, spindle, and dendritic cells [3]. EBN is a diagnostically challenging entity because of its rarity and histological overlap with other pigmented melanocytic lesions, such as cellular blue nevus, malignant blue nevus, and the so-called animal-type malignant melanoma. Because it is very uncommon and no cases have been recorded in the Korean literature, this Korean case is reported.