Significance of dermoscopy in vitiligo

Introduction: Vitiligo: An autoimmune disorder of pigmentation characterised by loss of functional melanocytes and melanin in epidermis. The disease has incidence of 0.5%–2% with no ethnic/sex predilection. Aim: Morphological dermoscopic patterns in vitiligo and its correlation with stability. Setting & Desing: An observational study conducted on patients attending C. R. Gardi Hospital, Ujjain during January’19-December’19. Materials and Methods: Dermoscopic examination was done after taking consent in 50 clinically diagnosed cases of vitiligo including stable vitiligo and unstable vitiligo. Statistical Analysis Used : Fisher’s Exact Test Sig. Results: On dermoscopy, patterns like perifollicular pigmentation (44%), perilesional/marginal hyperpigmentation (50%), intra/perilesional erythema with telangiectasia (86%), perifollicular depigmentation (64%), trichrome pattern (50%), leukotrichia (46%), starburst appearance (24%), comet tail appearance (48%), micro-koebner’s phenomenon (42%), tapioca sago appearance (28%) were observed. Perilesional/marginal hyperpigmentation was observed more frequently in stable disease. Perifollicular depigmentation, trichrome pattern, comet tail appearance, micro koebner’s phenomenon and tapioca sago appearance are the findings significant in unstable disease. Perifollicular pigmentation and intra/perilesional erythema with telangiectasia though are findings of stable disease, were observed in both stable and unstable disease in similar numbers. Leukotrichia and starburst appearance were present in both stable and unstable disease despite being the findings of unstable disease. Conclusion: Dermoscopy serves as an auxiliary tool in confirming the diagnosis and assessing stability of the disease. Dermoscopy allows appreciation of subtle features invisible to naked eye. This is the first ever study to find out the statistically significant findings in stable and unstable vitiligo. We conclude that dermoscopic st