Does dermatoscopy facilitate the detection and diagnosis of vascular skin lesions? A case–control study

Background 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.

Methods 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.

Results 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.

Conclusion In our setting, clinical and dermatoscopic examinations significantly facilitated detecting and diagnosing vascular skin lesions, compared to clinical examination alone.