Evaluation of the use of dermoscopy in clinical diagnosis of malignant skin lesions and pre-malignant skin lesions

Dermoscopy is an important in-vivo, non-invasive diagnostic technique that allows inspection of morphological features that are not visible with bare eyes. It has an important role in enhancing the diagnostic accuracy of skin lesions. The aim of this study is evaluation of the use of dermoscopy in diagnose of malignant skin lesions and premalignant skin lesions.

This prospective observational study conducted on 240 patients with clinical diagnosis of malignant or pre-malignant skin lesions. All the patients were evaluated with dermoscopy and histopathology. Dermoscopic results were compared with histopathologic findings as the gold standard for diagnosis of skin lesions.

Of the 240 skin lesions, 69 (28.8%) were benign, 75 (31.3%) were pre malignant and 96 (40.0%) were malignant. The concordance between dermoscopic results and histopathological findings was 75.4%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of dermoscopy in diagnosis of malignant lesions were 85.42%, 70.59%, 79.27%, 80.40%, 77.42% and 79.27% respectively, p < 0.0001. These items for pre-malignant lesions were 66.67%, 70.59%, 71.43%, 65.75% and 68.54% respectively.

The sensitivity and specificity of dermoscopy in diagnosis of skin lesions were high, therefore this real-time non-invasive technique can be introduced as a routine diagnostic tool in dermatological examination and can minimize unnecessary invasive biopsy.