Open AccessThe challenge of diagnosing seborrheic keratosis by reflectance confocal microscopy
Author(s) -
Guo A.,
Chen J.,
Yang C.,
Ding Y.,
Zeng Q.,
Tan L.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
skin research and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.521
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1600-0846
pISSN - 0909-752X
DOI - 10.1111/srt.12582
Subject(s) - seborrheic keratosis , actinic keratosis , medicine , dermatology , keratosis , basal cell carcinoma , biopsy , dermatoscopy , pathology , confocal microscopy , basal cell , melanoma , cancer research , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Abstract Background Seborrheic keratosis ( SK ) is one of the most common skin tumors seen by dermatologists. It should be differentiated with many diseases, especially skin tumors. Reflectance confocal microscopy ( RCM ) has been applied for evaluation of SK . There are a few studies that describe the RCM of SK . The aim of the study was to find the challenge of diagnosing seborrheic keratosis by reflectance confocal microscopy. Methods A total of 390 patients with a clinical suspicious diagnosis of seborrheic keratosis were enrolled in this study, and lesions from each patient were imaged with RCM . Thirty‐seven of these patients performed a biopsy in order to be given a histological diagnosis. We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of RCM diagnosis and histological diagnosis, and then found the RCM characteristics of biopsy‐proven lesions. Results According to RCM images, 258 of 390 (66.2%) patients were diagnosed with SK , 97 of 390 (24.9%) patients could not be diagnosed by the dermatologist according to RCM . Of all 37 biopsied lesions, 23 were SK , 6 were actinic keratosis, 2 were basal cell carcinoma, and 2 were squamous cell carcinoma. Conclusion It is challenge to diagnose seborrheic keratosis by reflectance confocal microscopy. It may due to the variable clinical and RCM appearances of SK , and limited depth of RCM .