chicken-wire pattern

A fanciful descriptor for a delicate plexiform or reticulated pattern imposed on that of another density or appearance.

Dermatology
(1) A pattern of cyanotic discolouration of the skin with or without an underlying vascular pathology, which may be triggered by the cold and associated with cold cryoglobulinaemia.
(2) A term of art referring to the chicken-wire-like pattern of intercellular IgG or IgM immunofluorescent staining of biopsies with pemphigus vulgaris, which is due to autoantibodies to desmoglein 3.

Imaging
A descriptive term for a pattern of intralesional calcification, which is regarded as pathognomonic for chondroblastoma, a paediatric tumour.

Pathology—brain
A fanciful term referring to the delicate arrangement of capillaries in oligodendroglioma.

Pathology—liver
A pattern of delicate arborising fibrosis associated with alcoholic hepatitis.

Pathology—soft tissue
A fanciful term referring to the arrangement of capillaries in myxoid liposarcoma, which may also be seen in low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma and clear cell sarcoma of the kidney, in which hyalinised cell cords are superimposed on a sclerotic background.

Mentioned in

honeycomb pattern

References in periodicals archive

And due to differences in the way the familiar chicken-wire patterns of atoms line up across the surface, nanotubes may either act as metals (potentially carrying greater current densities than copper) or semiconductors.

Wonder cloth: a film made from carbon nanotubes may finally live up to the nanotech hype. But first, it has to get out of the lab

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