Impact of Diagnostic Confidence, Perceived Difficulty, and Clinical Experience in Facial Melanoma Detection: Results from a European Multicentric Teledermoscopic Study

Authors: Cartocci A. , Luschi A. , Lo Conte S. ,… Cevenini G. , Tognetti L.

Keywords

atypical pigmented facial lesions; dermoscopy; diagnostic accuracy; diagnostic confidence; lentigo maligna; pigmented actinic keratosis; solar lentigo.

Summary

The dermoscopic differential diagnosis of pigmented facial lesions poses a daily challenge, and lentigo maligna can be simulated by a series of beginning entities, especially small ones, such as pigmented actinic keratosis or solar lentigo. While it is known that personal dermoscopic skill largely relies on clinical experience, the level of diagnostic confidence and perceived difficulty of those cases have never been investigated. Here, we highlighted that diagnostic confidence has a certain impact on the diagnostic accuracy of benign and malignant difficult pigmented facial lesions, while perceived difficulty seems to influence management more. A higher personal experience in dermoscopy has a greater impact on management strategies and the recognition of easy cases than on the average diagnostic accuracy of aPFLs.

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