Symptoms and Signs in Dermatology/Macules

From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Macules and Patches compared.

Macules are small skin lesions (<10 mm) characterised by change in colour of skin without any palpable elevation of skin. To be "macular" means the area of abnormality is not palpable; it can't be felt. You might find macular erythema (an area of redness) or a "macular pigmented skin lesion", which could be a junctional nevus (often referred to as a "mole") or lentigo (a kind of freckle). Being macular implies the process does not thicken the skin or represent an increase or decrease of the keratinocytes in this area.