Premium
Difficult to diagnose small cutaneous melanoma metastases mimicking angiomas: utility of dermoscopy
Author(s) -
Mazzella Caterina,
Costa Claudia,
Cappello Milena,
Scalvenzi Massimiliano
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-4632
pISSN - 0011-9059
DOI - 10.1111/ijd.14128
Subject(s) - medicine , melanoma , dermatology , dermatoscopy , diagnostic accuracy , medical diagnosis , angioma , histopathological examination , radiology , physical examination , pathology , surgery , vascular disease , cancer research
Background Metastases from melanoma can be found in any organ, while the reported incidence of skin metastases varies between 2 and 20%. Cutaneous melanoma metastases ( CMM ) can be heterogeneous at clinical examination, and they can simulate other benign and malignant lesions, thus generating major diagnostic troubles for the dermatologist. Dermoscopy is a useful tool that may increase the physician's diagnostic accuracy to this purpose. Materials and methods Herein, we describe the case of two patients having lesions that can easily be confused with other benign or malignant lesions for their clinical and dermoscopic similarities and for the variability of presentation of skin metastases. The description of the dermoscopy patterns of melanoma metastases may be useful to recognize early metastases, when clinically not suspected, facilitating an early removal and histopathological confirmation. Results Diagnoses of melanoma metastases and angiomas were confirmed by histological examination. Melanoma metastases show at dermoscopic examination the angioma‐like pattern. The ability to detect CMM between other lesions was good taking into consideration that, without the patient's history and with just the dermoscopy image, it could be very difficult to distinguish CMM from other benign or malignant skin lesions. Conclusions The present study confirms that dermoscopy is a useful tool to increase the physician's diagnostic accuracy for CMM and allow its differentiation from other cutaneous lesions, always taking into account the patient's medical record.