Chuh A, Zawar V, Sciallis G
Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, The University of Hong Kong and the Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong,
JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong.
J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2018 Sep;48(3):210-216. doi: 10.4997/JRCPE.2018.304.
During dermatoscope-guided surgical procedures, we noticed that vasculature was easily identified. This study investigated the use of dermatoscopy in detecting and diagnosing vascular skin lesions.
We retrieved records of patients with vascular skin lesions who underwent dermatoscopy over a 3 month period, in two outpatient clinics affiliated with a university teaching hospital. Our controls were similar patients where dermatoscopy was not performed.
Our new findings are: 1, clinical and dermatoscopic examinations diagnosed significantly more patients with vascular skin lesions than clinical examinations alone (risk ratio: 1.36; 95% confidence interval: 1.10-1.67); 2, the detection rate increase was significant for cherry angiomas (p < 0.001), telangiectasias (p < 0.01) and spider angiomas (p < 0.01); 3, qualitatively, dermatoscopy revealed characteristic configurations, hues and colour saturations of the vascular skin lesions; and 4, the first reported dermatoscopic images of focal essential telangiectasia and petechial angioma.
In our setting, clinical and dermatoscopic examinations significantly facilitated detecting and diagnosing vascular skin lesions, compared to clinical examination alone.
