title: Spinal meningeal melanocytoma.
abstract: Primary melanotic meningeal neoplasms are extremely rare lesions and benign forms are even rarer though with better prognosis than the malignant ones. We describe a 40-year-old male with a history of gradually progressive weakness of both lower limbs with normal bowel, bladder control, and an intradural mass measuring 1.5×1.0 cm on radiologic investigations. The lesion was surgically excised. Histopathologic examination revealed heavily melanin-pigmented cells, nuclei with reticulogranular chromatin and small nucleoli, moderate amount of eosinophillic cytoplasm with indistinct cell boundaries, and symplasmic appearance. A probable diagnosis of meningeal melanocytoma was made. The diagnosis was confirmed on immunohistochemical analysis which revealed strongly positive expression of HMB-45 in the tumor cells. Vimentin and S-100 were also diffusely positive while neuron specific enolase showed focal and patchy positivity; however, epithelial membrane antigen was distinctly negative.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Rajeev
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.forename: Divya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sethi
authors.forename: Vandana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.forename: Amrita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Duhan
authors.forename: Shilpi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Modi