title: Dermoscopic findings of pilomatricomas.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To the best of our knowledge, no specific dermoscopic criteria have been described in the medical literature for the diagnosis of pilomatricomas.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the morphological findings of pilomatricomas under dermoscopic observation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Dermoscopic examination (using the Dermlite Foto; 3Gen, LLC, Dana Point, Calif., USA) of 10 patients with pilomatricomas was performed to evaluate specific dermoscopic criteria and patterns.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most frequently occurring dermoscopic features were found to be: irregular white structures (80%) and white streaks (70%); vascular structures in all lesions (reddish homogeneous area in 90%, hairpin vessels in 70%, linear-irregular vessels in 70% and dotted vessels in 40%); ulceration (60%), and structureless gray-blue areas in 20% of cases. The results of our study reveal that the absence of specific dermoscopic criteria for other skin tumors and the presence of irregular white structures and polymorphous/atypical vessels is the most frequent dermoscopic pattern in pilomatricomas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dermoscopy may be a useful tool for improving the recognition of pilomatricomas. However, dermoscopy does not assure 100% diagnostic accuracy and pilomatricomas may represent in some cases, above all in elderly patients, a dermoscopic pitfall, being difficult to differentiate dermoscopically from other lesions, such as melanoma or basal cell carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Department, Hospital de Sant Pau i Santa Tecla, Tarragona, Spain. PZaballos@aedv.es
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zaballos
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Llambrich
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Puig
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Malvehy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D046169:Dermoscopy; D005260:Female; D006201:Hair Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018296:Pilomatrixoma / Q000473:pathology*; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*