Dermoscopy in General Dermatology for Skin of Color

Dermoscopy has become a key part of the dermatologist’s diagnostic armamentarium as it allows to explore findings not seen with the naked eye. Besides its classic use in assessing pigmented and non-pigmented skin tumours, it is gaining significant appreciation in the field of non-neoplastic diseases as a supportive tool to facilitate the clinical differential diagnosis.
The possible application of dermoscopy for non-neoplastic dermatoses, including inflammatory, infectious and infiltrative conditions, increases the possibilities to use this technique also in dark-skinned patients, for which it was classically used less due to the lower incidence of cutaneous neoplastic lesions. However, it does require practitioners to be aware of several points of difference from subjects with lighter phototypes as presentation of dermatological diseases in skin of colour may remarkably differ due to the diverse background of colour and specific histological reaction patterns. Moreover, there are some dermatoses that are exclusively or predominantly seen in darker skin for which dermoscopy may serve as a support for their recognition.
In this book, we brought together the experience of international experts to document clinical and dermoscopic patterns of non-tumoural dermatoses in phototypes IV to VI (from subcontinental Asian, North African, South American, to African skin) by providing over 700 illustrations, with the hope of helping clinicians to improve their ability to recognize dermatological diseases when dealing with dark-skinned patients.