Abstract

Most dermatological conditions are diagnosed by simple inspection of the skin lesions with the naked eye or with a hand lens. Cases with diagnostic difficulty often are resolved by a skin biopsy, which though a minor procedure, is still invasive. Dermoscopy is one of the newer non-invasive techniques used in the diagnosis of dermatological conditions. provided by common hand held dermoscopes is 10x (Figure1). Sophisticated video-dermoscopy equipments are available with much higher magnifications. These can be used in the studying nail fold capillary patters in the context of connective tissue disorders (Figure2).2 Some companies have developed complex dermoscopy equipment with sophisticated camera attachments and software, which can be used to map the skin of the whole body, with the data being stored in a standardized format for easy follow up of the patient. Adapters are also available which can enable hand held dermoscopes to be attached to smart phones, thus making the imaging and data storage procedure even more easy. Other than melanocytic nevi and melanoma, specific dermoscopic patterns were highlighted in other conditions like hemangiomas, basal cell carcinoma, seborrheic keratosis, actinic keratosis, Bowen’s disease, squamous cell carcinoma etc. and even infections and infestations like scabies and warts (Figure 3a & 3b).2,3,4,5 Recently more researchers have started exploring the use of dermoscopy in the application related to