(spot)


1. A small surface area differing in appearance from its surroundings.
SYN: SEE: macula
2. Randomly collected, as in a urine specimen.

ash-leaf spot

White macules found on the trunk and extremities of persons with tuberous sclerosis.

Bitot spots

SEE: Bitot spots

blind spot

1. Physiological scotoma situated 15° to the outside of the visual fixation point; the point where the optic nerve enters the eye (optic disk), a region devoid of rods and cones.
SEE: scotoma
2. In psychiatry, the inability of a person to have insight into his or her own personality.

blood spot

A dried specimen of blood placed on filter paper, used for laboratory analysis, as for congenital metabolic diseases.

blue spot

SEE: Mongolian spot.

Brushfield spot

SEE: Brushfield spot

cherry-red spot

A red spot visible on the retina of children with sphingolipid disorders, such as Niemann-Pick disease or Tay-Sachs disease.
SYN: SEE: Tay spot

cold spot

An area on a nuclear medicine scan in which no radioactive tracer is taken up, indicative of nonfunctioning tissue in a gland or other structure.

corneal spot

SEE: Leukoma.

cotton-wool spot

A tiny white infarct with soft or blurred borders in the retina, and present in hypertension, diabetes mellitus, bacterial endocarditis, and other diseases.
SYN: SEE: soft exudate

focal spot

The area on the x-ray tube target that is bombarded with electrons to produce x-radiation.

Fordyce spots

SEE: Fordyce disease

genital spot

The area on the nasal mucosa that tends to bleed during menstruation.
SEE: vicarious menstruation

hematocystic spot

Any of the focal red marks seen on esophageal varices. They consist of aneurysms of the wall of the dilated blood vessel. Their presence increases the likelihood that the varix may bleed.

histo spots

Scarring of the macula found in those infected with Histoplasma capsulatum.

hot spot

1. An area on the surface of the skin that, when stimulated, experiences a sensation of warmth.
2. In a nuclear medicine scan, a region of the image that shows an abnormally high concentration of injected isotope.
3. Any location that has been radioactively contaminated.
4. In radiation oncology, a tissue region that is exposed to much more radiation than neighboring tissues.

hypnogenic spot

SEE: Hypnogenic zone.

Koplik spot

SEE: Koplik spot

liver spot

A popular term for a pigmentary skin discoloration, usually in yellow-brown patches.
SEE: Lentigo senilis

milk spot

A dense area of macrophages in the omentum.

mongolian spot

Any of the blue or mulberry-colored spots usually located in the sacral region. It may be present at birth in Asian, American Indian, black, and Southern European infants and usually disappears during childhood.
SYN: SEE: blue spot

rose spots

Rose-colored maculae occurring on the abdomen or loins in typhoid fever.

Roth spots

SEE: Roth spots

ruby spot

SEE: Cherry angioma.

shin spots

The colloquial name for necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum. This condition is usually, but not always, associated with diabetes.
SEE: necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum

Tardieu spot

SEE: Tardieu spot

Tay spot

SEE: cherry-red spot

Trousseau spots

SEE: Trousseau, Armand

white spots

Light-colored, elevated areas of various sizes occurring on the ventricular surface of the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve in endocarditis.

yellow spot

ABBR: y.s. SEE: Macula (3).