Background
Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) and line‐field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC‐OCT) are non‐invasive imaging devices that can help in the clinical diagnosis of actinic keratosis (AK) and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). No studies are available on the comparison between these two technologies for the identification of the different features of keratinocyte skin tumours.
Objectives
To compare RCM and LC‐OCT findings in AK and SCC.
Methods
A retrospective multicenter study was conducted. Tumours were imaged with RCM and LC‐OCT devices before surgery, and the diagnosis was confirmed by histological examinations. LC‐OCT and RCM criteria for AK/SCC were identified, and their presence/absence was evaluated in all study lesions. Gwet AC1 concordance index was calculated to compare RCM and LC‐OCT.
Results
We included 52 patients with 33 AKs and 19 SCCs. Irregular epidermis was visible in most tumours and with a good degree of agreement between RCM and LC‐OCT (Gwet's AC1 0.74). Parakeratosis, dyskeratotic keratinocytes and both linear dilated and glomerular vessels were better visible at LC‐OCT than RCM (p < 0.001). Erosion/ulceration was identified with both methods in more than half of the cases with a good degree of agreement (Gwet AC1 0.62).
Conclusions
Our results suggest that both LC‐OCT and hand‐held RCM can help clinicians in the identification of AK and SCC, providing an in vivo and non‐invasive identification of an irregular epidermis. LC‐OCT proved to be more effective in identifying parakeratosis, dyskeratotic keratinocytes and vessels in this series.
Background: It is well known that multiple patient-related risk factors contribute to the development of cutaneous melanoma, including anagraphic, phenotypic and anamnestic factors.
Objectives: We aimed to investigate which MM risk factors were relevant to be incorporated in a risk scoring-classifier based clinico-dermoscopic algorithm.
Methods: This retrospective study was performed on a monocentric dataset of 374 atypical melanocytic skin lesions (aMSLs) sharing equivocal dermoscopic features, excised in the suspicion of malignancy. Dermoscopic standardized images of 258 atypical nevi and 116 early melanomas were collected along with objective lesional data (i.e., maximum diameter, specific body site and body area) and 7 dermoscopic data. All cases were combined with a series of 10 MM risk factors, including anagraphic (2), phenotypic (5) and anamnestic (3) ones.
Results: According to the stepwise analysis logistic regression, the proposed iDScore 2021 algorithm is composed by 9 variables, including 3 patient data (age, skin phototype I/II, personal/familiar history of MM), 2 lesion characteristics (maximum diameter, location on the lower extremities (thighs/legs/ankles/back of the feet) and 4 dermoscopic features (irregular dots and globules, irregular streaks, blue gray peppering, blue white veil). The algorithm assigned to each lesion/case a progressive score from 0 to 18. The performance obtained in the ROC curve analysis reached 92% AUC in differentiating early melanomas from atypical nevi.
Conclusions: An integrated checklist combining multiple anamnestic data with selected relevant dermoscopic features can be useful in the differential diagnosis and management of early melanomas and atypical nevi exhibiting equivocal features.
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