Dermoscopic Findings and the Clinicopathologic Correlation of Pigmented Purpuric Dermatosis: A Retrospective Review of 60 Cases

Utility of Dermoscopy in Cutaneous Small Vessel Vasculitis: Preliminary Observations from a Study of 30 Cases

Background

Dermoscopy is a non-invasive diagnostic technique that provides an added advantage to the routine clinical diagnostic exercise. Role of dermoscopy in cutaneous small vessel vasculitis has not been explored well.

Objective

This study was intended to delineate the dermoscopic features of cutaneous small vessel vasculitis and to correlate them with histopathological findings of the disease.

Materials and Methods

This was a cross-sectional study involving 30 patients with cutaneous small vessel vasculitis confirmed by histopathology and direct immunofluorescence. In each patient, dermoscopic features of early/evolving and established lesions were recorded. Dermoscopic-histopathological correlation was assessed for established lesions.

Results

On dermoscopy, the early/evolving lesions showed a dull red background in all the 30 (100%) patients, red globules in 8 (26.7%), and red dots in 4 (13.30%) patients. The established lesions showed red background in 28 (93.3%) patients, white and yellow structureless areas in 19 (63.33%) patients each, red globules in 18 (60%), and red dots in 16 (53.3%) patients. A statistically significant association between red globules and red blood cell extravasation was noted (P-0.01). White and yellow structureless areas also showed a statistically significant association between sparse (P-0.023) and dense (P-0.007) perivascular infiltrates, respectively.

Conclusion

Dermoscopy of cutaneous small vessel vasculitis exhibits fairly reliable and reproducible features correlating well with histopathological aspects of the disease. Hence, inclusion of dermoscopy in the clinical diagnostic protocol for cutaneous small vessel vasculitis is beneficial in complementing the clinical diagnosis and in differentiating from other inflammatory purpuras.

Dermoscopic feature analysis of different skin lesions of Langerhans cell histiocytosis

Dermoscopy was used to investigate skin lesions in 15 children with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH). Purplish red globules or patches could be seen in different rashes under dermoscopy, and histopathology showed extravasation of red blood cells. Dermoscopy findings were highly consistent with histopathology results. Purplish red globules or patches could be used as important features in dermoscopy test and differential diagnosis.of LCH.