Vascular Patterns in Dermoscopy

Under the right conditions, dermoscopy allows us to observe the vascular features of many different types of skin lesions. The visualization and identification of vessels with a characteristic morphology can be the key to diagnosis, especially in hypopigmented lesions in which the typical pigmented structures are not visible. Some of the more characteristic associations are the presence of crown vessels in sebaceous hyperplasia, arborizing telangiectasias in basal cell carcinoma, comma-shaped vessels in intradermal and compound nevi, dotted vessels in Spitz nevi and melanoma, and hairpin vessels in seborrheic keratoses. The recognition of distinctive vascular features can be of great help in the diagnosis of many types of skin lesions, and very often such patterns are the only key to the diagnosis of melanoma. (C) 2011 Elsevier Espana, S.L. and AEDV. All rights reserved.