The Role of Dermoscopy in Diagnosis of Pigmentary Skin Lesions

Skin color affected by many agents as it is determined by several chromophores such as melanin, hemoglobin and carotenoids. Among these, melanin is the main one responsible for different skin colors.

Melanin is produced by special skin cells called melanocytes and packed in organelles called melanosomes. Sometimes, human skin may present a non-uniform melanin distribution in two different ways, leading to pigmentary disorders.

In the first, melanin concentration increases to levels above normal resulting in hypermelanosis. In the second, the melanin concentration decreases to levels below normal, resulting in hypomelanosis.melanogenesis is acomplex process when disturbed ,it results into various pigmentary disorders either hypo or hyper pigmentation.

These disorders may be congenital or acquired, permenant or temporary, systemic or region restricted).

Pigmentary disorders are include alarge number of heterogenous conditions that are usually characterized by altered melanocyte density, melanin concentration, or both, and result in altered pigmentation of the skin. Some of these disorders are extremely common such as (melisma and vitiligo), whereas others are rare