Dermoscopic pattern of acral malanocytic nevi

Aim: It is vital that an important skin cancer such as malignant melanoma is included in the differential diagnosis of dermoscopy of pigmented skin lesions, and that there are sufficient studies on nevi in ​​the acral area, especially considering that a significant percentage of melanoma cases develop in the acral area. While conducting our study, we aimed to contribute to the insufficient literature data in this field and to examine the characteristics of acral nevi in ​​our country according to multiple variables. Method: In our study, 310 acral nevus on the ear, nose area, palmoplantar area and hand-foot dorsum of a total of 310 patients who applied to Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Hospital Dermatology Department between August 2023 and February 2024 were included. In the nevi we examined, we can determine the most common nevus pattern types on the face, palmoplantar area, and dorsum of the hands and feet, whether the pattern structures are affected according to gender, age, anatomical localization, and skin type, how aware the patients are of their nevi, whether awareness varies depending on the region experienced, gender, age and anatomical location. We analyzed whether there were any changes or not and the bilateral relations of all the parameters examined. Results: The patient population consisted mostly of women, of which 205 (66.1%) of the 310 patients whose acral nevi we examined were female and 105 (33.9%) were male. Most of the patients were in the 21-40 age range, with 201 (64.8%) being 21-40 years old. The majority of the patients, 284 (91.6%), were living in Van. While 188 (60.6%) of the patients were not aware of their nevi located in the acral regions, 122 (39.4%) were aware. 142 of the patients (45.8%) had Type 3 skin type. The most common pattern structures are reticular pattern with 24.8% (77 people), parallel furrow pattern with 21.3% (66 people), globular pattern with 15.5% (48 people), and 11.6% (36 people) lattice like pattern, homogeneous pattern with 10.3% (32 people) and pseudo network pattern with 9.0% (28 people). According to anatomical location, the nevi were mostly located in the dorsum of the hand with 27.1% (84 people) and in the palmar area with 18.1% (56 people). 13 Conclusion: When we evaluated according to our findings, we found that acral nevi were more common in women and in the 21-40 age group, patients are often unaware of their acral nevi, women are more aware of their nevi, among all nevus patterns, the most common patterns are the reticular and globular patterns on the dorsal surfaces and the parallel furrow and lattice pattern in the palmoplantar area, we found that the globular pattern structure was more dominant at early ages, and the reticular and homogeneous pattern was dominant at later ages. Key Words: Acral melanocytic nevi, Dermoscopy, Nevus patterns, Parallel furrow pattern, Lattice-like pattern, Parallel ridge pattern.