We report a case of pilomatricoma diagnosed in a 3-year-old girl. Fine-needle aspiration smear of the cheek nodule revealed uniform tightly packed aggregates of basaloid cells with a high nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio and round nuclei containing nucleoli. Histopathological study of the resected tumor confirmed the diagnosis of pilomatricoma.
Cytodiagnosis of pilomatricoma may be difficult because of the presence of basaloid cells, which can be misdiagnosed as carcinoma. However, the absence of nuclear pleomorphism and coarse chromatin, and the presence of tight aggregates of basaloid cells may allow ruling out of the presence of malignancy.
