Dermoscopic pattern of pityriasis versicolor

Mahesh Mathur,^* Prakash Acharya,^* Alina Karki, Nisha KC, Jyoti Shah

Department of Dermatology, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Nepal

*These authors contributed equally to this work


Background: Pityriasis versicolor (PV) is essentially a clinical diagnosis characterized by hypopigmented or hyperpigmented patches on the skin. Dermoscopy is gaining popularity as a noninvasive procedure for the diagnosis of different pigmentary and inflammatory disorders. However, scarce evidence exists on the dermoscopic pattern of PV.
Objective: To describe the dermoscopic features of hypopigmented and hyperpigmented lesions of PV.
Methods: Dermoscopic images of PV lesions located on different body sites were retrospectively evaluated for the presence of predefined criteria.
Results: A total of 178 lesions from 125 patients were included in the study among which 164 lesions were hypopigmented and 14 lesions were hyperpigmented. Nonuniform pigmentation was the most common dermoscopic feature seen in both hypopigmented lesions (n=152, 92.68%) and hyperpigmented lesions (n=14, 100%). Scales were seen in 142 hypopigmented lesions (86.56%) and 13 hyperpigmented lesions (92.86%). Patchy scaling was more common in hypopigmented lesions (n=95, 57.92%) while scaling in the furrows was more common in the dermoscopy of hyperpigmented lesions (n=5, 35.71%). Inconspicuous ridges and furrows and perilesional hyperpigmentation were other significant features seen in dermoscopy of the lesions.
Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study describing the dermoscopic features of PV in such a large number of patients. Description of these new features adds valuable information and may help to establish dermoscopy as an important auxiliary tool for the diagnosis of PV.

Keywords: dermoscopy, dermatoscopy, tinea versicolor, diagnosis, hypopigmented patches