Dermoscopy guided scalp biopsy in cicatricial alopecia
March 2012
in “Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology”
TLDR Using dermoscopy to guide scalp biopsies is an effective way to diagnose cicatricial alopecia.
The document described a study where 80 patients with cicatricial alopecia underwent dermoscopy-guided scalp biopsies over a 2-year period. This technique involved selecting biopsy sites based on dermatoscopic features specific to different types of cicatricial alopecia. The study found that this method yielded a definitive pathological diagnosis in 95% of cases (76 out of 80 patients). The conclusion was that dermoscopy-guided scalp biopsy is an effective and precise technique for identifying affected follicles in early or focal cicatricial alopecia, which can enhance the accuracy of diagnosis and the understanding of the disease's morphology. However, the study lacked a control group for comparison, which was acknowledged as a limitation.
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