A digital dermatoscope is the most modern device for skin pigmentary changes (birth-marks). It is irreplacable especially in diagnoses of areal skin pigmentary protuberances, that can be very difficult even for experienced dermatologists.
The specialists who invented the digital dermatoscopy always endeavour to detect an arising melanom (the most malignant skin tumour) at the time when it is still easy to cure – it is well known that, when the tumour gets operated in the first phase, i. e. at the time when its cells are still in the skin, the patient gets cured at almost 100%.
We get much information about what makes tumours come into existence, today´s medicine is, however, still unable to prevent them from arising. The main aim of specialists from all branches is to have an examining method which could detect a tumour at the beginning of its existence, when it can be cured without problems. And the digital dermatoscope constitutes such method for an early detection of the melanom.
The digital dermatoscope is a device representing a professional visualization system. It includes a special camera and software that allows to detect the examined formation far more exactly than by eye or a magnifying glass or a manual dermatoscope, to preserve the treated picture for the sake of later comparison and to analyse the skin change on the basis of objective criteria.
Which criteria are used nowadays in diagnoses of pigmentary changes (birth-marks)?
All these signs are inspected by the dermatovenerologist during the clinical examination of the patient, nevertheless, this inspection by the eye is very subjective. To make the examination more precise, a special magnifying glass - a so-called epiluminescent hand-dermatoscope is used, but its use itself requires special skills and of course a great deal of practice. Moreover, the examination is also very subjective.
Compared to that, the digital dermatoscope works objectively, independently on the doctor, inspected signs of each skin formation are analysed by a computer, as a result, a diagnosis is recommended, sometimes, these diagnoses can be compared to pictures of similar skin formations of which the diagnosis was already verified by a histopathological examination. Nonetheless, it still isn´t the end of dermatovenerologist´s work, right the other way round. – a diagnosis recommended by the computer has to be either confirmed or excluded by the dermatovenerologist experienced in diagnostics of skin pigmentary changes. As a matter of fact, the digital dermatoscope is extremely helpful to dermatovenerologists, but it can only be used by those specialists.
By means of this device, an experienced dermatologist can e. g. suggest which skin pigmentary change is to be removed and which one shall be only regularly inspected, i. e. the digital dermatoscope allows the patient´s dispensarization without any unnecessary operations.
And which type of digital dermatoscope do the Prague Dermatology Center specialists use?/p>
It is a new generation device (a so-called "DBDermo-Mips"), the only digital dermatoscope of which the results were accepted by specialists and published by colleagues from the University of Siena in "The Journal of Investigative Dermatology“, the most prestigious dermatological magazine (J Invest Dermatol 119, 2002 (2), 471-474).
A medical examination made by the digital dermatoscope doesn´t hurt, it takes only several minutes and therefore even numerous pigmentary formations can be quickly diagnosed. Children can also undergo the examination and the patients are offered to choose regular check-ups instead of surgical removal of pigmentary formations.
| Monday | 08:30 - 17:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 11:30 - 20:00 |
| Wednesday | 08:30 - 17:00 |
| Thursday | 11:30 - 20:00 |
| Friday | 08:30 - 16:00 |
Prague Dermatological Centre, copyright 2007