MUAZZEZ ÇİĞDEM OBA, MERYEM YÜVRÜK
Journal of the Turkish Academy of Dermatology - 2023;17(3):76-79
Background: Clinical diagnosis of skin adnexal tumours (SATs) is challenging. In this study, we aimed to determine the compatibility rate of clinical pre-diagnoses and histopathological diagnoses in histopathologically confirmed cases of SATs examined by dermatologists. Materials and Methods: Histopathologically confirmed cases of SATs in a single center dermatology clinic during May 2019- May 2023 were retrospectively retreived. We recorded demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics (elementary lesion type, tumour localization, when available dermoscopic features) and clinical pre-diagnoses from patient medical records. Results: A total of 39 SATs from 38 patients (18 female and 20 male) were included in the analysis. All 38 SATs (97.4%) were benign except one trichilemmal carcinoma. Lesions were most commonly located in head and neck region in 61.5% (n=24) of patients, presenting as nodules (n=21, 53.9%) and papule/plaques (n=18, 46.1%). Dermatoscopic features included linear vessels, structureless white areas, structureless pink/purple areas and blue-gray dots. Clinical pre-diagnoses were discordant in 53.8% (n=21) of cases where SAT was not mentioned among one or more pre-diagnoses. Most common erroneous pre-diagnoses were epidermal cyst, nevi and non melanoma skin cancer. Conclusion: With the exclusion of pilomatricoma, more than half of SATs are difficult to recognize in clinical and dermoscopic examination. Further studies with focus on clinical and dermoscopic differentiation of SATs from most common pitfall diagnoses are needed.
