This high-power photomicrograph of myocardium shows the cellular detail of an Aschoff body. Aschoff bodies are foci of fibrinoid necrosis surrounded by lymphocytes, macrophages, an occasional plasma cell, and plump “activated” histiocytes called Anitschkow cells or Aschoff cells (arrows). These distinctive cells have abundant amphophilic cytoplasm and central round-to-ovoid nuclei in which the chromatin is disposed in a central, slender, wavy ribbon resembling a caterpillar (hence the designation “caterpillar cells”).