Dermatoscopy in the Public Health Environment

Dermoscopy is a diagnostic technique that can diminish the refraction and reflection at the skin. It facilitates the visualization of colors and structures in subsurface skin structures located within the epidermis, dermoepidermal junction, and papillary dermis, which are otherwise not visible to the naked eye. It improves diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for skin cancer diagnosis. The two-step analytic algorithm attempts in the first step to differentiate melanocytic lesions from the nonmelanocytic lesions: dermatofibroma, basal cell carcinoma, seborrheic keratosis, and hemangioma. The second step is proposed to differentiate nevi from melanoma using scoring systems. Dermoscopy is also useful for the assessment of other skin cancers such as squamous cell carcinoma, as well as for inflammatory and infectious diseases. This chapter provides a review of the dermoscopic features that are seen in various pigmented and nonpigmented tumoral and nontumoral skin lesions as well as the dermoscopic criteria used for monitoring patients who are prone to skin cancer.