Background: Little is known about the frequency of clinical and dermoscopic patterns of lentigo maligna (LM) in relation to specific anatomic subsites and patients characteristics.
Objective: We sought to assess the frequency of clinical and dermoscopic features of LM and to correlate them to specific anatomic subsites, and patients' age and gender.
Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of clinical and dermoscopic images of a series of consecutive, histopathologically diagnosed, facial and extrafacial LM.
Results: A total of 201 cases from 200 patients (mean age 69.51 ± 12.26 years) including 120 women were collected. Most cases were located on the face (n = 192, 95.5%). In 102 cases, LM presented as clinically solitary facial macule (s/LM), whereas it was associated with multiple surrounding freckles in the remaining cases. s/LM were significantly smaller (<10 vs >10 mm; P = .020) and associated with younger age compared with LM associated with multiple surrounding freckles (mean age 67.73 ± 12.68 years vs 71.34 ± 11.59 years, respectively; P = .036). Dermoscopically, gray color irrespective of a specific pattern was the most prevalent finding seen in 178 (88.6%) cases.
Limitations: This was a retrospective study.
Conclusions: The knowledge about patient age, patient gender, and site-related clinical features of LM associated with gray color upon dermoscopy may enhance the clinical recognition of LM.
Keywords: dermoscopy; lentigo maligna.
Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.