Dermatopathology: An abridged compendium of words. A discussion of them and opinions about them. Part 8 (P-S)

Copyright: ©2015 Hookerman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. PAGET CELL: specific for mammary Paget's disease and extramammary Paget's disease, is typified by a large, round, or plump oval nucleus and pale-staining cytoplasm, the latter being more abundant in extramammary Paget's disease because there it is replete with acid mucopolysaccharides that are demonstrable by staining with hematoxylin and eosin and better yet with stains specialized for them. Paget cells of mammary Paget's disease and extramammary Paget's disease have several attributes in common, but they are dissimilar, just as are mammary Paget's disease and extramammary Paget's diseases themselves, despite the fact that they share the word " mammary " and the name Paget's disease. " PAGET PATTERN: is scatter of cells constituent of mammary Paget's disease and extramammary Paget's disease throughout an epithelium, usually epidermal but also adnexal. PAGETOID CELL: is one that resembles the cell constituent of Paget's disease especially of extramammary Paget's disease by having a large roundish nucleus and abundant pale cyto-plasm. It is found, for example, in some lesions of melanoma and of Bowen's disease. PAGETOID MELANOCYTE: an abnormal melanocyte with abundant pale cytoplasm, but less abundant than in a ballooned melanocyte and such cells may be dispersed singly or in nests within the epidermis. They resemble the pale cells found within the epidermis of lesions of mammary and extramammary Paget's disease. Pagetoid melanocytes may contain dusty particles of melanin. If they do not, reliable differentiation from true Paget cells depends on histochemi-cal techniques. Paget cells are DOPA negative and contain either neutral mucopolysaccharides (in mammary disease) or sialomucin (in extramammary disease). Pagetoid mela-nocytes are DOPA-positive and do not contain mucin. They are usually seen in melanomas, especially those on the trunk and proximal parts of the extremities, but also are found in some melanocytic nevi, especially combined melanocytic nevi. PAGETOID MELANOCYTIC PROLIFERATION: a phrase coined by Wallace H. Clark, Jr. and advocated by a panel of dermatopathologists appointed by the National Institutes of Health to forge definitions of terms employed in the language of melanocytic neoplasia, they being published in 1992. In brief " pagetoid melanocytic proliferation " was yet another attempt at evasion from a diagnosis by microscopy conventional of " melanoma in situ " and, like all …