Clinical and Dermoscopic Features of Nevi in Preschool Children in Padua

ined: in our study we examined children aged 2–6 years, whereas in the study of Aguilera et al. the age range was 1–15. With regard to the number of nevi per anatomic site, the mean number of nevi was 1.43 in the head and neck area, 1.57 in the chest, 0.98 in the upper extremities, 2.53 in the back, 0.70 in the lower extremities and 0.33 in the feet. The dominant dermoscopic pattern in our patients, defined as the pattern present in more than 40% of all nevi [3] , was reticular in 30 (37%) patients, globular in 36 (44.4%), cobblestone in 1 (1.2%), homogeneous in 2 (2.5%), starburst in 3 (3.7%), multicomponent in 2 (2.5%), globular-reticular in 3 (3.7%), reticular-homogeneous in 2 (2.5%) and globular-homogeneous in 2 (2.5%) patients. Interestingly, the reticular pattern, usually more prevalent in the older population, was more represented in our 2to 6-year-old population (37%) than in the 1to 15-year-old population studied by Aguilera et al. In conclusion, we report some clinical and dermoscopic features of melanocytic nevi in a population of 81 consecutive preschool children presented to the Dermatology Unit of the Department of Pediatrics in Padua. Our results are partially in agreement with those of Aguilera et al. indicating that a different selection of patients can determine variations in both clinical and dermoscopic patterns.