Chin Whybrew, Pawel Pietkiewicz, Ihor Kohut, Justin C. Chia, Bengu Nisa Akay, Cliff Rosendahl
Dermatol Pract Concept. 2022;12(4):e2022250
Since the introduction of polarized-light dermatoscopes it has become evident that there are some fundamental differ-ences in image characteristics, in comparison to those pro-vided by non-polarized dermatoscopy [1].Non-polarized dermatoscopy provides color rendition without dilution of colors such as gray and blue by polariz-ing filters, and it provides a clear display of white clods and dots (milia-like cysts) in seborrheic keratoses [1-3].Polarized dermatoscopy on the other hand displays fea-tures not seen in non-polarized dermatoscopy, including shiny white structures/streaks [4] (defined as short, bright, white lines distributed in a parallel or orthogonal orienta-tion, which can only be seen with polarized dermatoscopy), four-dot clods (rosettes) and polarizing-specific structureless areas [4].Each of these polarizing-specific features are known to have diagnostic relevance,but notably, it has been shown that shiny white structures/streaks can be critical in the di-agnosis of melanoma [5] and in a meta-analysis they have been shown to have the equal highest odds ratio (OR) of 6.7 for the diagnosis of melanoma, compared to pseudopods (equal), irregular pigmentation (OR 6.4), blue-white veil (OR 6.3) and peppering (OR 6.3) [4]. To read further, click here