Vascular structures in skin tumors: A dermoscopy study

Objectives: To describe the different vascular structures seen by dermoscopy and to evaluate their association with various melanocytic and nonmelanocytic skin tumors in a large series of cases. Design: Digital dermoscopic images of the lesions were evaluated for the presence of various morphologic types of vessels. Setting: Specialized university clinic. Patients: From a larger database, 531 excised lesions (from 517 patients) dermoscopically showing any type of vascular structures were included. Main Outcome Measures: The frequency and positive predictive value of the different vascular structures seen in various tumors were calculated, and the differences were evaluated by the χ² or Fisher exact test. Results: Arborizing vessels were seen in 82.1% of basal cell carcinomas, with a 94.1% positive predictive value (P