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.