A. Lallas

Accuracy of dermoscopic criteria for the diagnosis of psoriasis, dermatitis, lichen planus and pityriasis rosea

Background  Dermoscopy is useful in evaluating skin tumours, but its applicability extends also to the field of inflammatory skin disorders. Plaque psoriasis (PP), dermatitis, lichen planus (LP) and pityriasis rosea (PR) are common inflammatory skin diseases, but little is currently known about their dermoscopic features.

Blue-black rule: A simple dermoscopic clue to recognize pigmented nodular melanoma

Background  Dermoscopy improves melanoma recognition, but most criteria were described in the context of superficial spreading melanoma.

Dermoscopy of early stage mycosis fungoides

Background  Early stage mycosis fungoides (MF) is difficult to be clinically differentiated from chronic dermatitis (CD) in a high proportion of patients. Dermoscopy is a rapid, cheep, non‐invasive and widely used method for the evaluation of skin tumours and, recently, of inflammatory skin diseases, as well.

Dermoscopy in general dermatology: practical tips for the clinician

In addition to its well‐documented value in improving the diagnosis of skin tumours, dermoscopy is continually gaining appreciation in the field of general dermatology. Dermoscopy has been shown to facilitate the clinical recognition of several inflammatory and infectious diseases, as well as their discrimination from skin tumours. Moreover, recent data indicate that it might also be profitable in assessing the outcome and adverse effects of various treatments. Application of dermoscopy should follow the standard procedure of acquiring information from patient history and clinically evaluating the number, location and morphology of the lesion(s). Four parameters should be assessed when applying dermoscopy in the realm of inflammatory and infectious diseases: (i) morphological vascular patterns; (ii) arrangement of vascular structures; (iii) colours; and (iv) follicular abnormalities, while the presence of other specific features (clues) should also be evaluated. It must be underlined that dermoscopic findings should always be interpreted within the overall clinical context of the patient, integrated with information from the history and the macroscopic examination. With new evidence continuously being gathered, the dermatoscope gradually acquires a role similar to the stethoscope of general practitioners, becoming an irreplaceable clinical tool for dermatologists. In this article, we provide a succinct summary of existing data on dermoscopy in general dermatology. Practical tips are suggested, which can assist clinicians in profitably utilizing and applying the available knowledge in their everyday practice.

Dermoscopic patterns of common facial inflammatory skin diseases

Several common inflammatory dermatoses, such as rosacea, seborrheic dermatitis (SD), discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) and granulomatous skin diseases manifest as erythematous macules or plaques on the facial skin. Although clinical examination represents the cornerstone of diagnosis, the broad variety of clinical features and uncommon presentations of these diseases may cause at times diagnostic and therapeutic uncertainty. Dermoscopy, in addition to its well‐documented value in evaluation of skin tumours, is continuously gaining appreciation also in the field of general dermatology.

Evaluating ex vivo fluorescence confocal microscopy images of basal cell carcinomas in Mohs excised tissue.

Fluorescence confocal microscopy (FCM) is an emerging technology for rapid imaging of excised tissue, without the need for frozen‐ or fixed‐section processing. Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) can be detected in Mohs excisions although few studies have described the major BCC findings as seen on FCM.

The clinical and dermoscopic features of invasive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma depend on the histopathological grade of differentiation

Little is known about the variability of the dermoscopic criteria of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) according to the histopathological differentiation grade.

Dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy of pigmented actinic keratoses: a morphological study

Actinic keratoses (AKs) are very common lesions on sun damaged skin and, when pigmented, represent a challenge in the differential diagnosis with early melanoma. Non‐invasive diagnostic methods, such as dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) have been shown to improve the diagnostic accuracy of melanoma and non‐melanoma skin cancer, however, only one case report described confocal findings of pigmented AKs up to now.

Clinical, dermoscopic and histopathologic features of genital and extragenital lichen sclerosus

Background  Little is currently known about the dermoscopic patterns of genital and extragenital lichen sclerosus (LS). In order to evaluate and compare the dermoscopic and histopathologic patterns of genital and extragenital lichen sclerosus, a retrospective analysis of clinical, dermoscopic and histopathologic features of genital and extragenital LS, collected between March 2010 and December 2011 at four dermatology clinics in Greece, Italy, Serbia and Uruguay was performed.

Dermoscopic clues to differentiate facial lentigo maligna from pigmented actinic keratosis

Dermoscopy is limited in differentiating accurately between pigmented lentigo maligna (LM) and pigmented actinic keratosis (PAK). This might be related to the fact that most studies have focused on pigmented criteria only, without considering additional recognizable features.