Background Early and accurate diagnosis of cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) and actinic keratoses (AK) is fundamental to reduce their associated morbidity and to select the correct treatment. Line-field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC-OCT) is a new imaging device that can characterize healthy skin and basal cell carcinoma, but no large studies on keratinocyte cell tumours have yet been published. Aim To identify and describe LC-OCT criteria associated with SCC and AK, and to compare LC-OCT findings in these tumours. Methods A retrospective observational multicentre study was conducted. Lesions were imaged with the LC-OCT device before surgery and examined histologically. LC-OCT criteria for AK/SCC were identified and their presence was evaluated in all study lesions. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to compare AK and SCCs, and to investigate differences between in situ and invasive tumours. Results In total, 158 patients with 50 AK and 108 SCCs (62 in situ and 46 invasive) were included. Cytological and architectural alterations were found in most lesions, and differences were found between AK and SCCs. Although the visualization of the dermoepidermal junction (DEJ) was often hampered by hyperkeratosis and acanthosis, an outlined DEJ without broad strands was observed in almost all AK and almost all in situ SCCs, but in only three invasive SCCs (P < 0.001) when the DEJ was detectable. Conclusion Our results suggest that LC-OCT can help clinicians in the identification of AK and SCC and their differentiation, providing a real-time and noninvasive examination. Further studies are needed to confirm our data.

Genital warts are the most frequent sexually transmitted disease. Their clinical diagnosis is not always easy, and invasive skin biopsies for histological examination should be performed in these cases. The aim of the study was to investigate the use of non-invasive imaging techniques for the diagnosis of genital warts and their imitators. We retrospectively evaluated dermoscopy, reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM), and line-filed confocal microscopy (LC-OCT) images of nine patients with 19 warts of the mucous membranes and five patients with lesions that clinically mimic genital warts, including 12 molluscum contagiosum, 1 Fordyce’s spot and one case of multiple acquired lymphangiomas. Most genital warts (15; 79%) showed dilated vessels surrounded by a whitish halo at dermoscopy. RCM and the new device LC-OCT could identify near histologic features such as the presence of hyperkeratosis, acanthosis, papillomatosis and enlarged vessels in all genital warts. However, the identification of koilocytes, which are the hallmark for the diagnosis of warts, was still difficult using both techniques. Non-invasive imaging techniques could also offer clues for the correct diagnosis of the imitators. This study confirmed the usefulness of dermoscopy in recognizing a precise pattern in warts and showed the potential use of RCM and LC-OCT to add additional findings to the clinical and dermoscopic examination.

Infantile perianal pyramidal protrusion, it is a rare benign cutaneous condition described in relatively recent times. It is considered to be under-reported in the pediatric literature because it is often mistaken for other conditions. The unawareness of this lesion may be responsible for an excessive concern both in physician and in parents, which leads to overly aggressive and unnecessary treatments. Thus its recognition has many implications regarding proper management and treatment. We report a typical presentation of IPPP in which the diagnosis was based on the use of non-invasive diagnostic tools and in particular of dermoscopy and ultrasonography

Citation: Campana I, Cinotti E, Broganelli P, Di Stefani A, Trovato E, Provvidenziale L, Perotti R, Lamberti A, Rubegni P. Neurothekeomas: dermoscopic features of 3 cases. Dermatol Pract Concept. 2019;9(4):322-324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.0904a21 Accepted: July 3, 2019; Published: October 31, 2019 Copyright: ©2019 Campana et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: None. Competing interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication. Corresponding author: Irene Campana, MD, Department of Medical, Surgical and Neurological Science, Dermatology Section, University of Siena, S. Maria alle Scotte Hospital, Viale Bracci 16, 53100 Siena, Italy. Email: irenecamp89@gmail.com Keywords : neurothekeomas, dermoscopy, dermatopathology, skin tumors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.