Dermoscopic and histopathological correlation in melanocytic and non-melanocytic lesions

Abstract

Objective: Dermoscopy is widely used in the differantial diagnosis of melanocytic and non-melanocytic skin lesions and increases the preoperative diagnostic accuracy. Our aim is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of dermoscopy by comparing the histopathologic results in the diagnosis of melanocytic and non-melanocytic skin lesions. Material and Methods: In the present study, the data regarding to 1.264 patients with melanocytic and non-melanocytic lessions between 2005-2009 were investigated. The data of 449 lessions of 362 patients among the sepatients who se histopathological examinations were performed because of malignancy or dysplasia suspicion with dermoscopic examination. Results: In the consequence of dermoscopic examination; 328 of 449 lessions were melanocytic and 121 were non-melanocytic. The histopathological examination revealed that 288 lesions were melanocytic and 161 were non-melanocytic. The result of diagnosis confirmation test was shown that either specifity and sensitivity of dermoscopy were high in differentiation of melanocytic and non-melanocytic lesions. Twenty-nine of 84 lesions of dermoscopic diagnosis with dysplastic nevus (DpN) were confirmed as histopathologically. Where as 22 (40.0%) of these patients revealed compound nevus and 1 (1.8%) lesion was malign melanoma (MM). Among 499 patients, MM diagnosis revealed in 38 (8.4%) lesions and in 12 (31.5%) of them the diagnosis was confirmed as histopathologically. Among the lesions with MM diagnosis by dermoscopy were not confirmed as histopathologically, five of these were resulted as DpN and 1 as BCC. Where as the dermoscopic diagnosis of a lesion which had a dermoscopic diagnosis out of MM was DpN and reported as MM. Among 57 (12.7%) BCC lesions, 41 (71.9%) the diagnosis were confirmed as histopathologically. Conclusion: Our results have led us to conclude although this method cannot substitute for histopathologic examination, it is a valuable and non-invasive technique in the diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions. Copyright © 2011 by Türkiye Klinikleri.