Morphological features of Spitz naevus as observed by digital videomicroscopy

A characteristic epiluminescence pattern of pigmented epithelioid and/or sp indle cell naevus, or Spitz naevus, has been described previously, The aim of this study was (i) to evaluate the characteristic morphological features both of pigmented and non-pigmented epithelioid and/or spindle cell naevi observed employing a videomicroscope, (ii) to identify their histopathologi cal correlates and (iii) to assess the improvement in diagnostic accuracy f or epithelioid and/or spindle cell naevi obtained by means of this nov inst rumental device. Clinical, videomicroscopic and histopathological diagnoses were performed on 26 epithelioid and/or spindle cell naevi, Moreover, the videomicroscopic pattern of each lesion was described using appropriate mor phological parameters, Based on their morphological aspect detected by digi tal videomicroscopy, epithelioid and/or spindle cell naevi can be subdivide d into three main groups: (i) darkly pigmented lesions, (ii) red or light b rown ESC naevi, and (iii) lesions with dark or brown areas on a light-brown background, Whereas most epithelioid and/or spindle cell naevi of the spin dle cell type belonged to the morphological group 1 and group 3, most epith elioid cell lesions appeared as red or light-brown coloured naevi, Finally, instrumental observation by means of a videomicroscope enabled an improvem ent in diagnostic accuracy with respect to the naked eye observation, with an increase in sensitivity from 15% to 58%.