Dermoscopy of Bacterial, Viral, and Fungal Skin Infections: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Over the last three decades, the use of dermoscopy has been extended to inflammatory and infectious dermatoses. Regarding the latter, while the first applications concerned skin parasitoses, there has been a significant increase in the publication trend regarding nonparasitic dermatoses over recent years, yet data on this topic are sparse and often lack a standardized analytical approach. This systematic literature review summarizes published data on dermoscopy of bacterial, viral, and fungal dermatoses (dermoscopic findings, used setting, pathological correlation, and level of evidence of studies) and provides a homogeneous terminology of reported dermoscopic features according to a standardized methodology. A total of 152 papers addressing 43 different dermatoses and describing 184 different dermoscopic findings were included in the analysis. The majority of them displayed a level of evidence of V (107 single case reports and 40 case series), with only 5 studies showing a level of evidence of IV (case–control studies). Moreover, our analysis also underlined a high variability in the terminology used in published articles (even for the same dermatosis). Therefore, despite significant potential, future studies designed according to a systematic and standardized approach are required for a better characterization of dermoscopy of nonparasitic skin infections. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13555-022-00855-2.

Study on skin infection model of Staphylococcus aureus based on analytic hierarchy process and Delphi method

“…Infectious skin diseases are a type of inflammatory skin lesions caused by pathogenic microorganisms, which are very commonly seen in clinical and seriously affects people's health [ 1 ]. Skin wound infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus ( S.aureus ), which is a critical clinical problem due to long hospitalization times, significant morbidity and mortality, as well as considerable medical resource consumption [ 2 , 3 ].…”

Dermoscopy of Infectious Dermatoses (Infectiouscopy) in Skin of Color—A Systematic Review by the International Dermoscopy Society “Imaging in Skin of Color” Task Force

“…The group of infectious skin disorders encompass a wide number of conditions due to parasitic, bacterial, viral and fungal agents [1][2][3]. Whereas the use of dermoscopy was initially conceived for parasitoses and insect bites/stings, there has been a significant increase of publication also on non-parasitic cutaneous infections [3].…”

“…Whereas the use of dermoscopy was initially conceived for parasitoses and insect bites/stings, there has been a significant increase of publication also on non-parasitic cutaneous infections [3]. Thanks to the detection of peculiar clues, dermoscopic assessment may help the clinician promptly recognize some infectious dermatoses without the use of time-consuming and expensive investigations (e.g., microbiological, laboratory, or imaging tests) [1][2][3]. Of note, most of studies dealing with dermoscopy of infectious dermatoses involved light-skinned patients [1][2][3], yet there is a growing trend in publications focusing on dark phototypes (Fitzpatrick's phototypes IV-VI) [3,4].…”

“…Thanks to the detection of peculiar clues, dermoscopic assessment may help the clinician promptly recognize some infectious dermatoses without the use of time-consuming and expensive investigations (e.g., microbiological, laboratory, or imaging tests) [1][2][3]. Of note, most of studies dealing with dermoscopy of infectious dermatoses involved light-skinned patients [1][2][3], yet there is a growing trend in publications focusing on dark phototypes (Fitzpatrick's phototypes IV-VI) [3,4]. This systematic review, performed on behalf of the International Dermoscopy Society (IDS) Task Force on "Imaging in Skin of Color", aimed at providing for the first time an up-to-date systematic analysis on dermoscopy of infectious dermatoses (infectiouscopy) in skin of color, also trying to align dermoscopic terminology of reported findings following a homogeneous standardized nomenclature.…”