Improvements that digital dermoscopy has brought to Dermatology

Dermoscopy is an imaging technique that allows high magnification visualization of skin lesions; it studies and analyzes the structure and patterns of pigmented lesions, such as melanocytic nevi or moles, as well as other non-pigmented tumor lesions.

With digital dermoscopy a mapping of the skin is made by recording photographs of the whole body that will be archived in order to see, in successive visits, if new nevi have appeared or if those already present in the patient have increased in size. Subsequently, specific lesions are selected for dermoscopic imaging, which allows dermatologists to analyze the structure of the lesions and to compare possible changes on subsequent visits.

Digital dermoscopy technique

The patient’s entire skin surface is explored by analyzing the pigmented lesions with a manual dermatoscope and selecting the most atypical ones. Subsequently, panoramic clinical photographs are taken of the different parts of the patient’s body, and then the dermoscopic images of the previously selected nevi are recorded. All files are stored for future comparative studies.

Improvements that digital dermoscopy has brought to Dermatology

Digital dermoscopy has been a revolution in dermatology, as it not only allows us to follow up melanocytic lesions or nevi by objectifying the changes, but also provides a great deal of information that helps us to differentiate whether a melanocytic lesion is benign or malignant.

Margin of error of digital dermoscopy

The margin of error depends exclusively on the examiner analyzing the images; the more experience and training the dermatologist has in digital dermoscopy, the better diagnostic accuracy he/she will achieve.