Clinical and Dermoscopic Features of Lentigo Maligna
Abstract
This study aimed analyze the clinical and dermoscopic features of patients with pathohistologically verified lentigo maligna (LM) and to determine possible influence of anatomical topography, age and gender in the dermoscopic features of LM.
Our retrospective study included 32 patients with 32 LMs in total, diagnosed between 2017 and 2020. Clinical data recorded from each patient included the following: demographic features (age, gender), anatomic localization (facial or extrafacial) and clinical size (<10mm or >10 mm). Facial area was subdivided into 8 topographical sites, while extrafacial localization involved any location outside the face region. All dermoscopic images were analyzed for the presence of dermoscopic features previously described for LM.
In the total of 32 patients, there were 19 males and 13 females. The patients age ranged from 34 to 80 years (median age 60.1±10.4 years). Significant female predominance was observed for localization on the cheeks (p=0.018). Localization on the nose was significantly associated with patients older than 65 (p=0.039). The most frequent dermoscopic features were asymmetric pigmented follicular openings 23 (71.9%), gray color 22 (68.8%) and pigmented rhomboidal structures 15 (46.9%). In relation to age and specific dermoscopic features, gray color (p=0.035) and white scar-like areas were (p=0.012) significantly higher in patients older than 65, while pigmented rhomboidal structures (p=0.041) were significantly associated with younger patients.
The observed differences in the frequency of clinical and dermoscopic features of LM have significant importance in everyday clinical practice and can assist clinicians in the early diagnosis of this malignant tumor
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