Dermoscopic features of acral melanocytic nevi in Central Anatolian Region of Turkey

Background and Design: Dermoscopy is a rapid and reliable method in the diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions, but dermoscopic examination of palmoplantar region is different due to the anatomical structures of acral region. The number of studies on the dermoscopy of acral melanocytic lesions is limited and acral volar melanocytic lesions were examined in all studies. For this reason, we aimed to examine acral melanocytic nevi located on the volar and dorsal side, to investigate the dinical and dermoscopic features, and to report the first demographic study of acral melanocytic nevi in the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey. Materials and Methods: The study included a total of 97 patients with 143 lesions, who were admitted to Necmettin Erbakan University Meram Faculty of Medicine, Department of Dermatology, between March 2011 and January 2016 . Results: Fifty-five patients had volar and 51 patients had dorsal melanocytic lesions. Seventy-two point eight percent of volar and 89% of dorsal lesions were located on hands. The most frequently seen dermoscopic patterns were parallel furrow pattern in 60% of volar lesions and reticular pattern in 39.7% of dorsal lesions. When the ABCD score of the dorsal lesions was calculated, the score was lower than 4.75 in 89% of the lesions. Conclusion: No significant difference was found between age, gender, frequency of sun contact, skin type, anatomical location of the lesion and pattern distribution. However, all three lesions with dorsal multicomponent pattern and five lesions with non-specific pattern were observed in female gender. All three lesions with volar fibrillary pattern were found in skin type 2 group and all three lesions with dorsal multicomponent pattem were found in skin type 3 group. The relationship between dermoscopic diagnoses and ABCD criteria could not be evaluated due to the low number of cases and the inability to excise each lesion.