Dermoscopy to differentiate clinically similar inflammatory and neoplastic skin lesions.

INTRODUCTION: Over the few last decades, dermoscopy has become an invaluable and popular imaging technique that complements the diagnostic armamentarium of dermatologists, being employed for both tumors and inflammatory diseases. Whereas distinction between neoplastic and inflammatory lesions is often straightforward based on clinical data, there are some scenarios that may be troublesome, e.g., solitary inflammatory lesions or tumors superimposed to a widespread inflammatory condition that may share macroscopic morphological findings. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: We reviewed the literature to identify dermoscopic clues to support the differential diagnosis of clinically similar inflammatory and neoplastic skin lesions, also providing the histological background of such dermoscopic points of differentiation. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Dermoscopic differentiating features were identified for 12 relatively common challenging scenarios, including Bowen's disease and basal cell carcinoma vs. psoriasis and dermatitis, erythroplasia of Queyrat vs. inflammatory balanitis, mammary and extramammary Paget's disease vs. inflammatory mimickers, actinic keratoses vs. discoid lupus erythematosus, squamous cell carcinoma vs. hypertrophic lichen planus and lichen simplex chronicus, actinic cheilitis vs. inflammatory cheilitis, keratoacanthomas vs. prurigo nodularis, nodular lymphomas vs. pseudolymphomas and inflammatory mimickers, mycosis fungoides vs. parapsoriasis and inflammatory mimickers, angiosarcoma vs granuloma faciale, and Kaposi sarcoma vs pseudo-Kaposi. CONCLUSIONS: Dermoscopy may be of aid in differentiating clinically similar inflammatory and neoplastic skin lesions.

Pilomatrix Carcinoma: Report of Two Cases of the Head and Review of the Literature.

BACKGROUND: Pilomatrix carcinoma (PC) is a rare skin tumor arising from hair follicle matrix cells. It is locally aggressive with a high rate of local recurrence after surgical excision. Few cases in the literature have been described and the management is not well defined. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to present two cases of PC located on the head and review the relevant literature about epidemiology, clinical and dermoscopic evaluation, characteristics of local and distant metastases, local recurrence rate and management of this rare skin tumor. METHODS: We consulted databases from PubMed, Research Gate and Google Scholar, from January 2012 to November 2022. We reviewed the literature and reported two additional cases. RESULTS: We selected 52 tumors in middle-aged to older patients located mostly on the head. Dermoscopy evaluation was rarely performed in the pre-operative diagnostic setting. The most definitive treatment was wide local excision, but local recurrences were common. In total, we observed 11 cases of recurrences and 9 patients with locoregional or distant metastases. Four patients received adjuvant radiotherapy, two patients needed chemotherapy and local cancer therapy and one patient received radiochemotherapy. CONCLUSION: Our reports and the review of the literature can provide a better awareness and management of this rare tumor.

Uncommon lymphocutaneous cellulitis after insect bite: a case report of primary cutaneous nocardiosis and literature review.

Nocardia is a genus of aerobic actinomycetes that are usually responsible for opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients. Less frequently nocardiosis can interest immunocompetent population, causing especially primary cutaneous infections. Cutaneous involvement by Nocardia spp. may occur mostly as one of four clinical manifestations: superficial cellulitis or abscess, mycetoma, lymphocutaneous (also defined "sporotrichoid") infection and secondary cutaneous involvement from systemic disease. Infections usually present after minor local injury, especially in traumatic outdoor activities (e.g. gardeners, farmers, road accidents), with subsequent environmental contamination of the wound. In sporadic cases cutaneous infection follows an insect bite. Microbiological diagnosis is often difficult to obtain and N. brasiliensis is the species isolated in most cases (80%). We present the case of a 45-year-old female with fever and a painful and necrotizing lesion on her right leg with secondary ascending lesions occurred on the homolateral knee and consensual groin lymphadenopathy after insect sting (maybe a spider bite). Cultures on skin biopsy identified Nocardia brasiliensis. Infection was completely healed after 5 months of targeted antibiotic therapy. In addition, we performed a literature review of all cutaneous nocardiosis cases in immunocompetent individuals, finding that only in 22 cases the infection presented after insect bite; in most of these cases lymphocutaneous manifestation was seen and N. brasiliensis was the Nocardia species isolated. Our case, along with others in literature, reveals that the real burden of soft-tissues nocardiosis seems low but probably many cases might go undiagnosed because of difficulties in microbiology diagnosis. Primary cutaneous nocardiosis should be included in the diagnostic pathway in cases of cellulitis following insect bite or sting, especially when localized to extremities.

Dermoscopic Findings in the Presurgical Evaluation of Basal Cell Carcinoma. A Prospective Study.

BACKGROUND: Surgery is the best treatment for basal cell carcinoma (BCC); however, incomplete excisions are possible. OBJECTIVE: Assessment of the accurateness of dermoscopy and clinical evaluation in the detection of borders of BCC and description of dermoscopic findings in clinically healthy tissue surrounding BCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-eight lesions with clinical dermoscopic diagnosis of BCC were examined clinically and dermoscopically, to delineate the correct site of surgical incision, demarcating the respective margins with colred dermographic pencils. Specific dermoscopic features were searched in the skin adjacent to the demarcated clinical margin. RESULTS: In 29 of 88 lesions, clinical and dermoscopic margins of the tumor coincided. In the remaining 59 (67%), 10 (16.9%) presented, in the lesion area identified under dermoscopy, classical criteria for BCC and 57 (96.6%) nonclassical criteria. Differences between clinical and dermoscopic margins were significantly more frequent in superficial BCCs (p = .006). The frequency was not significantly different (p = .85) in relation to body sites. CONCLUSION: Dermoscopy improves the identification of margins for surgical excision in BCC. The observation of nontraditional dermoscopic criteria of BCC, mainly pink-white areas and short telangiectasias in the area between clinically and dermoscopically detected margins, helps to define the actual tumoral margins and to achieve a really radical excision.