Dermatoscopy

It is also known as dermoscopy. This technique refers to the examination of the skin using skin surface microscopy. A dermatoscope (or dermoscope) is a device used for the examination of cutaneous lesions. It has a hand-held device with a magnifier with either cross-polarized or non-polarized light or a liquid medium of oil between the instrument and the skin to illuminate a lesion without glare from reflected light. The device is useful for examining pigmented lesions such as naevi and potential malignant lesions such as melanomas. There are specific dermoscopic patterns that aid in the diagnosis of the following pigmented skin lesions such as melanomas, moles (benign melanocytic naevi), freckles (lentigos), atypical naevi, seborrhoeic keratosis and pigmented basal cell carcinomas. Evidence suggests that while dermatoscopy improves the diagnostic accuracy for melanoma compared to the unaided eye, it requires sufficient training and is not recommended for untrained users (Kittler et al., 2002).