Friday, October 25, 2013

Actinic vs Seborrheic Keratosis

I'm sorry , I'm the LAST person who may help you how to clinically differentiate between both, I believe it requires an expert Dermatologist and thanks GOD I'm a Pediatrics Resident who wouldn't have to face this Dilemma, however let us think about it in a Sincere trial to get this sense !

Both occur in the elderly, in Fact, Actinic type is called "Senile Keratosis" and Seborrheic keratosis is called "Senile warts"

these are some Important facts :

Seborrheic keratosis are wart like , hyper pigmented lesions nearly found in all the elderly above 50 years of age , in fact if you approached your Father/Mother right now you may find some of them in clusters upon his/her body, good news is they aren't Premalignant !

Actinic type is also a hyper pigmented lesion that may be crusty or scaly, occurs in sun exposed areas like face, neck, chest and back, the bad news is that they may be premalignant (1:1000) and develop into squamous cell carcinoma, and to make things worse it's usually late diagnosed after atypical changes or cancer already has developed due to its similarity with seborrheic keratosis , however a solitary mole in a sun exposed area in a fair skinned individual should raise your suspicion on the diagnosis .

if there are  Definite Criteria/Guidelines for diagnosis and investigations for skin moles generally , please enrich this topic with your kind replies !

 also check this exciting blog:  http://dermoscopic.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html
by Dr. Eric EHRSAM

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