Onychocytic Matricoma: A Clinical, Dermoscopic, and Pathological Analysis of 14 Cases

Onychocytic matricoma (OCM) is a benign neoplasm of the nail matrix. Only 18 cases of this tumor have been reported in the literature to date. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features of 14 patients with OCM. The most common clinical feature was longitudinal xanthopachyonychia (n = 9), followed by longitudinal leukopachyonychia (=3) and longitudinal pachymelanonychia (n = 2). The most common clinical findings identified following dermoscopy and analysis at high magnification of classical photographs were free-edge thickening of the nail plate without pitting (n = 14), longitudinal ridging (n = 7), round white clods (n = 7), white dots (n = 7), and filiform hemorrhages (n = 7), followed by oval and linear white clods (n = 5), fuzzy lateral border (n = 5), and red-purple blood clods (n = 3). Nail clipping histopathology showed a thickened nail plate with multiple, small, round-to-oval spaces. The tumor expressed immunopositivity for LEF-1. Dermoscopy of the nail plate and nail clipping histology provides useful information with regards to the differential diagnosis with subungual squamous cell carcinoma and nail melanoma. Ex vivo-in vivo correlation facilitates a better dermoscopic assessment of this unique underrecognized disease. However, the differential diagnosis between OCM and onychocytic carcinoma requires biopsy of the tumor. LEF-1 as an onychogenic marker can be used to resolve the differential diagnosis between OCM and subungual longitudinal acanthoma/seborrheic keratosis.