Dermoscopy of papulopustular rosacea and comparison of dermoscopic features in patients with or without concomitant Demodex folliculorum.

BACKGROUND: The dermoscopic findings of papulopustular rosacea include tiny papules and pustules, follicular plugs and follicular dilatation. Demodex tails and Demodex follicular openings are dermoscopic indicators that are mainly found in primary demodicosis and, less frequently, in rosacea. AIM: To describe the dermoscopic features of papulopustular rosacea and to investigate the differential dermoscopic features between patients with and without concomitant Demodex infestation. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study of patients with almost-clear, mild or moderate papulopustular rosacea. For each patient, dermoscopic images were taken and a standardized skin surface biopsy was performed. RESULTS: In this group of 60 patients, the most frequent dermoscopic findings were yellow dots, vascular polygons and follicular scales. Patients with moderate rosacea had more Demodex follicular openings compared with patients with mild rosacea (P = 0.02), while patients with mild rosacea had a higher frequency of follicular scales than did patients with almost-clear rosacea (P = 0.01). Patients with moderate rosacea had higher rates of Demodex follicular openings (P = 0.02), follicular scales (P < 0.001), follicular annular pigmentation (P = 0.001) and follicular pustules (P < 0.001) compared with patients with almost-clear rosacea. No significant dermoscopic differences were observed between patients with and without concomitant Demodex infestation. CONCLUSIONS: Papulopustular rosacea has specific dermoscopic findings. In our opinion, dermoscopy is not sufficient by itself for the diagnosis of Demodex proliferation in rosacea.

Analysis of facial redness by comparing VISIA® from Canfield and CSKIN® from Yanyun Technology.

BACKGROUND: Redness is the most common symptom among many facial dermatoses. With the rapid development of optical instruments, spectral imaging, and image processing technology, there appear varieties of skin color analysis methods and instruments. The aim of this study is to reveal the differences and correlations in measuring the facial redness between CSKIN® and VISIA® , as well as the relevance between the instrument parameters and clinical evaluation. MATERIALS & METHODS: Forty-three Chinese patients were enrolled. Images were taken and analyzed by VISIA® from Canfield and CSKIN® from Yanyun Technology, and the facial erythema was graded by the dermatologists. RESULTS: Feature counts within the red areas measured by VISIA® were found to have significantly positive correlations with red pixels and percent which were measured by CSKIN® on both sides of the face (r = .45 ~ .566, P < .01). The parameters analyzed by CSKIN® and VISIA® feature counts were correlated with visual scores graded by the dermatologists, VISIA® presented with a weak correlation (r = .213, P < .05), while CSKIN® had a moderate correlation with the visual scores (r = .472 ~ .492, P < .001). CONCLUSION: CSKIN® may be another alternative option when encountering with measurement and follow-up of facial erythema.

Granuloma aséptico facial idiopático: revisión actualizada de las dificultades diagnósticas y terapéuticas / Idiopathic Facial Aseptic Granuloma: Updated Review of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Difficulties

El granuloma aséptico facial idiopático (GAFI) es una patología específica de la edad pediátrica caracterizada por la aparición de nódulos rojizos asintomáticos en la región facial. Su etiopatogenia es aún motivo de discusión, aunque la literatura actual orienta a que se encontraría dentro del espectro de la rosácea infantil. Tiene una evolución crónica pero benigna, y hay publicaciones que documentan la resolución espontánea de las lesiones en menos de un año. A pesar de no tener un tratamiento bien definido, se prefiere que sea conservador y se eviten las intervenciones agresivas

Idiopathic facial aseptic granuloma is a pediatric skin condition involving asymptomatic reddish nodules. The etiology and pathogenesis is still under discussion, although the literature tends to place this condition within the spectrum of childhood rosaceas. The clinical course is chronic but benign, and cases have been reported to resolve spontaneously in less than a year. Even though no well-defined treatment has emerged, a conservative approach that avoids aggressive therapies is preferred

Sarcoidosis en cicatriz periocular como primer hallazgo de sarcoidosis sistémica: características clínico-radiológicas / Sarcoidosis in the periocular scar as the first finding of systemic sarcoidosis: Clinical-radiological characteristics

Se presenta un caso raro de una mujer caucásica de 29 años con un granuloma en una cicatriz antigua, en la región periocular derecha, como primer signo clínico de una sarcoidosis sistémica. Se procedió a una biopsia escisional de la lesión con diagnóstico anatomopatológico de inflamación crónica granulomatosa no necrosante, con características histológicas sugestivas de sarcoidosis de cicatriz. Al año, la lesión recidivó, por lo que se trató con esteroides depot intralesionales. Esta patología se produce con más frecuencia cuando existen cuerpos extraños y puede ser la primera señal de sarcoidosis sistémica

An unusual case is presented of a 29 year-old Caucasian woman with a granuloma in an old scar in the right periocular region as a first clinical sign of a systemic sarcoidosis. An excisional biopsy was performed, for which the histological diagnosis was a chronic non-necrotising granulomatous inflammation, suggestive of scar sarcoidosis. The lesion re-appeared one year after initial treatment, and was treated with intralesional depot steroids, showing adequate progression. This disease occurs more frequently in wound areas where there are foreign bodies and could be the first sign of systemic sarcoidosis

Novel diagnostic imaging features of facial lupus panniculitis: ultrasound, CT, and MR imaging with histopathology correlate.

Lupus panniculitis (LP), also referred to as lupus erythematosus profundus (LEP), is a chronic recurrent inflammation condition of the subcutaneous fat. It occurs in 1 to 3% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and in 10% of patients with discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), but can also occur as an entity of its own. Patients with lupus panniculitis usually present with persistent, often tender and painful skin lesions, or subcutaneous nodules, that range from 1 to 5 cm in diameter. The overlying skin may appear erythematous; lesions may become ulcerated, and heal with atrophy, skin depression, dimpling and scaring. Lesions tend to resolve spontaneously and may follow a chronic course of remission and exacerbation that persists for months to years. The imaging features of facial LP are extremely scarce in the literature. We present a case of facial lupus panniculitis and describe the associated characteristic ultrasound, CT, and MR imaging findings along with histopathologic correlation.

Sarcoidosis in the periocular scar as the first finding of systemic sarcoidosis: Clinical-radiological characteristics. / Sarcoidosis en cicatriz periocular como primer hallazgo de sarcoidosis sistémica: características clínico-radiológicas.

An unusual case is presented of a 29 year-old Caucasian woman with a granuloma in an old scar in the right periocular region as a first clinical sign of a systemic sarcoidosis. An excisional biopsy was performed, for which the histological diagnosis was a chronic non-necrotising granulomatous inflammation, suggestive of scar sarcoidosis. The lesion re-appeared one year after initial treatment, and was treated with intralesional depot steroids, showing adequate progression. This disease occurs more frequently in wound areas where there are foreign bodies and could be the first sign of systemic sarcoidosis.

Diagnostic impact of reflectance confocal microscopy as a second-level examination for facial skin lesions.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Benign and malignant facial skin lesions may be difficult to differentiate clinically and with dermoscopy. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential utility of in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) as a second-level examination for facial skin neoplasms. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective and blinded evaluation of 160 consecutive facial lesions was carried out in two separate steps. Clinical and dermoscopic images were assessed first, followed by combined evaluation of clinical/dermoscopic and RCM images. Our study included 60 % malignant lesions, comprising 43 % melanomas, 9 % basal cell carcinomas, 5 % in situ squamous cell carcinomas and 3 % lymphomas. RESULTS: Ancillary RCM significantly improved diagnostic specificity for the detection of malignancy compared to clinical/dermoscopic evaluation alone (58 % vs 28 %). However, sensitivity was slightly lower for RCM-based image evaluation (93 % vs 95 %) due to misclassification of one in situ SCC and one lymphoma. In terms of melanoma diagnosis, RCM-based image evaluation was generally superior; sensitivity was only slightly increased (88 % vs 87 %), but melanoma specificity was significantly higher (84 % vs 58 %). CONCLUSION: RCM is a valuable diagnostic adjunct for facial skin lesions; unnecessary biopsies in this cosmetically sensitive area could be reduced by one third without missing a melanoma.

Hypervascular Pseudonodular Plaque-Like Ultrasound Morphology in Angiolymphoid Hyperplasia. / Morfología ecográfica en placa pseudonodular hipervascular en hiperplasia angiolinfoide.

Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia (ALHE) is a benign vascular proliferation characterized by solitary or multiple angiomatous lesions. It is most common in young or middle-aged women, and the lesions typically affect the head and neck, showing a particular predilection for the periauricular region. The differential diagnosis in patients with ALHE is broad and includes both benign and malignant conditions. We report on a series of cases of periauricular ALHE in which ultrasound imaging revealed an hypervascular, pseudonodular and plaque-like morphology with clinical and histologic correlations. It also evidenced vascular communication between lesions that appeared to be separate on clinical examination. Familiarity with such ultrasound presentations could help to improve diagnostic accuracy and facilitate disease monitoring in patients with ALHE.

Artificial Intelligence for the Objective Evaluation of Acne Investigator Global Assessment.

INTRODUCTION: The evaluation of Acne using ordinal scales reflects the clinical perception of severity but has shown low reproducibility both intra- and inter-rater. In this study, we investigated if Artificial Intelligence trained on images of Acne patients could perform acne grading with high accuracy and reliabilities superior to those of expert physicians. METHODS: 479 patients with acne grading ranging from clear to severe and sampled from three ethnic groups participated in this study. Multi-polarization images of facial skin of each patient were acquired from five different angles using the visible spectrum. An Artificial Intelligence was trained using the acquired images to output automatically a measure of Acne severity in the 0-4 numerical range of the Investigator Global Assessment (IGA). RESULTS: The Artificial Intelligence recognized the IGA of a patient with an accuracy of 0.854 and a correlation between manual and automatized evaluation of r=0.958 (P less than .001). DISCUSSION: This is the first work where an Artificial Intelligence was able to directly classify acne patients according to an IGA ordinal scale with high accuracy, no human intervention and no need to count lesions. J Drugs Dermatol. 2018;17(9):1006-1009.

Granuloma aséptico facial idiopático: hallazgos clínicos y ecográficos de 3 casos / Idiopathic Facial Aseptic Granuloma: Clinical and Ultrasound Findings in 3 Cases

El granuloma aséptico facial idiopático es una entidad propia de la infancia que se caracteriza por la presencia de uno o varios nódulos asintomáticos en la mejilla. Aunque su patogenia no está clara, se ha sugerido que pueda pertenecer al espectro de la rosácea infantil. Resuelve espontáneamente pero puede plantear dudas diagnósticas con otras lesiones que sí requieren tratamiento. Presentamos los hallazgos clínicos y ecográficos y la evolución, tanto clínica y ecográfica, de 3 nuevos casos. En 2 pacientes, la lesión se presentó en el contexto de una rosácea infantil. En ecografía, el granuloma aséptico facial idiopático mostró un patrón característico, con variaciones en función del momento evolutivo. La ecografía de alta frecuencia puede facilitar el diagnóstico diferencial, evitando biopsias o extirpaciones innecesarias

Idiopathic facial aseptic granuloma is a typical childhood disease characterized by the presence of one or more asymptomatic nodules on the cheek. Although pathogenesis remains unclear, the disease is thought to be a type of childhood rosacea. It resolves spontaneously, yet it could be confused with other lesions that require treatment. We present clinical and ultrasound findings and outcome from 3 new cases. In 2 cases, the lesion presented as childhood rosacea. Ultrasound revealed a characteristic pattern, with variations depending on the stage of development. High-frequency ultrasound can facilitate the differential diagnosis and thus obviate unnecessary biopsy or excision

Tracking actinic keratosis of face and scalp treated with 0.015% ingenol mebutate to identify clinical and dermoscopic predictors of treatment response.

BACKGROUND: Ingenol mebutate (IngMeb) 0.015% gel is an approved field treatment option for non-hyperkeratotic non-hypertrophic actinic keratosis (AK) of face and scalp. Efficacy of IngMeb has been assessed only on a clinical ground, in the majority of studies. Dermoscopy is a pivotal tool for the diagnosis of AK, while its role in evaluating the response to non-surgical therapies for AK has not been fully defined. OBJECTIVES: Our study aims to determine whether some dermoscopic features of AK of the face and scalp areas may independently predict the response to IngMeb therapy. METHODS: Clinical and dermoscopic responses, 1 month after 0.015% IngMeb therapy, were retrospectively evaluated using a per-patient and per-lesion approach. Safety was evaluated through local skin reaction composite score calculation. Demographic, clinical and dermoscopic factors were then evaluated via univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis to assess independent predictors of response. RESULTS: Fifty-five patients with 245 AKs were enrolled. Clinically, per-patient response evaluation identified 25 (45.4%) poor/partial and 30 (54.5%) complete responders, corresponding on a per-lesion approach to 66 (26.9%) and 179 (73.1%) AKs, respectively. Dermoscopy reclassified 14 patients in the per-patient and 48 AKs in the per-lesion analysis from complete to poor/partial responders. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that AKs dermoscopically characterized by red pseudonetwork and located on the face were independently associated with a complete dermoscopic response to 0.015% IngMeb therapy, while microerosions were negative predictors. CONCLUSION: Specific dermoscopic features of AK may predict the response to 0.015% IngMeb therapy, together with the location on the face.