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Updated: Jun 12, 2026
Combining Reflectance Confocal Microscopy with Optical Coherence Tomography for Noninvasive Diagnosis of Skin Cancers via Image Acquisition
Published on: August 18, 2022
Vascular patterns in basal cell carcinoma
T Micantonio1, A Gulia, E Altobelli
1Department of Dermatology, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
Background:
Dermoscopy has been proved to increase the diagnostic accuracy of basal cell carcinoma (BCC).
Objective:
To characterize the type and frequency of vascular patterns in superficial and nodular BCCs.
Methods:
We retrospectively analysed the dermoscopic images of 504 histopathologically proven BCCs.
Results:
The most common vascular pattern was represented by arborizing vessels (306/504; 60.7%), which were significantly more frequent in nodular BCCs (nBCCs) compared with superficial BCCs (sBCCs), and in pigmented sBCCs vs. non-pigmented sBCCs (P<0.0001). Short fine telangectasias (SFTs) were found in 33.1% (167/504) of cases and were significantly more frequent in sBCCs compared with nBCCs (P<0.0001). Hairpin vessels were detected in 52/504 (10.3%) BCCs. Minor vascular patterns included glomerular vessels (41/504; 8.1%), dotted (21/504; 4.2%), comma vessels (5/504; 1.0%) and polymorphous pattern (9/504; 1.8%).
Conclusions:
Arborizing vessels are prototypic of nBCCs, whereas SFTs are characteristics of sBCCs. Differential diagnosis with squamous cell carcinoma or melanoma is mandatory when a polymorphous pattern is detected.
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