S8C31P17-1: This is a representative field from a lesion of lupus profundus (lupus panniculitis). The changes are mild and focal in distribution; lipocytes are fairly well preserved. There is some degree of lipoatrophy; the lipocytes individually are small in diameter and there is a mild accentuation of the vascular plexus. Centrally, a cluster of dilated vessels is associated with perivascular (red arrows) and interstitial infiltrates of lymphoid cells (plasma cells are included in the infiltrates). Blue arrows identify a vessel with a hyalinized wall. Green arrows identify a similar vessel but, in this area, there are prominent sub-endothelial infiltrates of lymphoid cells. There are delicate, faint deposits of hyalin among lipocytes.

S8C31P17-3: The vascular hyalinosis of lupus profundus is also encountered in the lower portion of the reticular dermis. In well-developed lesions, the vascular changes tend to be associated with sclerosis of sclerodermoid type (collagen bundles are straight and are streaked in a direction which parallels the surface of the skin). The perivascular infiltrates are lymphoplasmacytic.

S8C31P17-4: The epidermal changes of a lesion of lupus profundus are variable but, in the example selected, the changes focally are lichenoid with prominent vacuolar changes at the dermal-epidermal interface. The pattern is that of a cell-poor lichenoid reaction; lymphocytes and migratory histiocytes have collected at the dermal-epidermal interface; there are fragments of nuclear debris. A small, lytic defect, on the right (blue arrows), contains a colloid body.