10.5826/dpc.1301a21
text/xml
2160-9381
2429
en
Enzo Errichetti
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dermatology Practical & Conceptual
Dermoscopy Of Infectious Dermatoses: Is It Time To Replace The Terms “Entodermoscopy” And “Entomodermoscopy” With “Infectiouscopy”?
Text.Serial.Journal
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc
Commentary
2023-01-31
2022-02-28
2023-01-31
2023-02-27
e2023021
Dermatol Pract Concept
Enzo Errichetti
2023/01/31
10.5826/dpc.1301a21
e2023021
Institute of Dermatology, “Santa Maria della Misericordia” University Hospital, Udine, Italy
2160-9381
en
e2023021
Entomology. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomology (last accessed 19 February 2022)
Dermoscopy Of Infectious Dermatoses: Is It Time To Replace The Terms “Entodermoscopy” And “Entomodermoscopy” With “Infectiouscopy”?
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc/article/download/2429/1932
    Dermoscopy of Infectious Dermatoses: is it Time
      to Replace the Terms “Entodermoscopy” and
     “Entomodermoscopy” with “Infectiouscopy”?
                                                          Enzo Errichetti 1


1 Institute of Dermatology, “Santa Maria della Misericordia” University Hospital, Udine, Italy



Citation: Errichetti E. Dermoscopy of infectious dermatoses: is it time to replace the terms “entodermoscopy” and “entomodermoscopy”
with “infectiouscopy”? Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(1):e2023021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1301a21
Accepted: April 13, 2022; Published: January 2023
Copyright: ©2023 Errichetti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
Funding: None.
Competing Interests: None.
Corresponding Author: Enzo Errichetti, Institute of Dermatology, “Santa Maria della Misericordia” University Hospital. Piazzale Santa
Maria della Misericordia, 15. 33100-Udine, Italy. Tel: (+39) 0432559822. E-mail: enzoerri@yahoo.it



Besides the classical use in the oncological setting, dermos-            -λογία (-logia) “study of”), [5] yet nowadays the use of der-
copy has showed to be helpful to assist the recognition of               moscopic assessment has expanded to many non-parasitic
several non-neoplastic dermatoses (general dermatology),                 infections [2]. In detail, according to a literature overview
including inflammatory and infectious conditions [1]. The                about the applications of dermoscopy in general dermatol-
initial applications in this regard date back to 1997 and con-           ogy updated to the end of 2020, a total of 25 parasitoses
cerned parasitic infections (scabies and larva migrans), after-          and arthropod bites/stings turned out to have at least one
wards several papers on the use of dermoscopy in the field               dermoscopic description, which was remarkably lower than
of general dermatology have progressively published, with                the sum of non-parasitic infections (51, with 11, 21, 19 be-
305 dermatoses (including relevant disease variants typified             ing viral, bacterial and fungal, respectively) (a complete list
by dermoscopic peculiarities) showing at least a dermoscopic             is reported in Table 1) [2]. ­Interestingly, whereas the review
description at the end of 2020 [2].                                      showed only a little increase in the publication trend about
    Over the time, the terms “inflammoscopy” and “ento-                  parasitoses over recent times, it displayed a significant leap
dermoscopy” (or “entomodermoscopy”) have gradually                       of articles dealing with dermoscopy of non-parasitic infec-
spread in the scientific community to refer to dermoscopy                tions in the last few years (36 vs 9 addressing parasitoses
of inflammatory and infectious diseases, respectively, as                in the time span between 2016 and 2020 – Table 1), thus
their roots link the fields of inflammatory diseases and ento-           making this topic a promising research field in the coming
mology with dermoscopy [3-4]. However, while the former                  future [2].
denomination is still appropriate, there is a need to update                 Based on the foregoing, when talking about dermoscopy
the latter. In fact, the terms “entodermoscopy”/“entomo-                 of infectious dermatoses, it would be reasonable to think to
dermoscopy” were initially conceived to refer to the study               replace the terms “entodermoscopy” and “entomodermos-
of parasitic dermatoses (including arthropod bites and                   copy”, which include a limited part of the infectious spectrum
stings) [3-4] based on the etymology of the word “entomol-               of skin diseases, with “infectiouscopy”, that is an “umbrella”
ogy” (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (entomon) “insect”, and                 term as its root refers to all infectious dermatoses.



Commentary | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(1):e2023021                                                                                1
     Table 1. List of both parasitic and non-parasitic infections whose dermoscopic findings have been
                                          described in the literature.
                   Parasitic dermatoses*                                         Non-parasitic infections
                 (year of first description)                                     (year of first description)
                             N=25                                                           N=51
 •   Scabies (1997)                                           •   Tinea nigra (2001)
 •   Cutaneous larva migrans (1997)                           •   Tinea corporis (2004)
 •   Nodular scabies (2001)                                   •   Plane warts (2004)
 •   Tungiasis (2004)                                         •   Common folliculitis (2004)
 •   Spider leg spines skin reaction (2006)                   •   Molluscum contagiosum (2004)
 •   Furuncular myiasis (2007)                                •   Epidermodysplasia verruciformis (2006)
 •   Cutaneous leishmaniasis (2009)                           •   Genital warts (2008)
 •   Phthiriasis (2009)                                       •   Verruca vulgaris (2008)
 •   Bullous scabies (2010)                                   •   Plantar warts (2009)
 •   Crusted scabies (2010)                                   •   Lupus vulgaris (2009)
 •   Demodicosis (2010)                                       •   Pitted keratolysis (2010)
 •   Tick bite (2010)                                         •   Trichobacteriosis axillaris (2012)
 •   Trombiculiasis (2014)                                    •   Mycetoma (2014)
 •   Wasp (hymenoptera, vespidae) stings (2014)               •   Cutaneous blastomycosis (2015)
 •   Pediculosis corporis (2014)                              •   Pityriasis versicolor (2015)
 •   Dermanyssus gallinae mite cutaneous infestation (2015)   •   Achromic pityriasis versicolor (2016)
 •   Thaumetopoea pityocampa cutaneous reactions (2016)       •   Condylomata lata (2016)
 •   Bed bug (Cimex lectularius) bites (2016)                 •   Tinea manuum (2016)
 •   Acute cutaneous leishmaniasis (2017)                     •   Tinea of vellus hair (2016)
 •   Wound myiasis (2017)                                     •   White Piedra (2016)
 •   Disseminated strongyloidiasis (2018)                     •   Pseudomonas folliculitis (2016)
 •   Cutaneous loxoscelism (2018)                             •   Contagious ecthyma (ORF) (2016)
 •   Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (2018)               •   Tinea incognito (2016)
 •   Cydnidae pigmentation (2019)                             •   Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome (2016)
 •   Infectious folliculitis (parasitic) (2019)               •   Disseminated cryptococcosis with cutaneous involvement
                                                                  (2017)
                                                              •   Chromoblastomycosis (2017)
                                                              •   Peruvian wart (2017)
                                                              •   Milker’s nodule (2017
                                                              •   Borderline tuberculoid leprosy (2017)
                                                              •   Syphilis (palmar syphiloderm) (2017)
                                                              •   Histoid leprosy (2017)
                                                              •   Pityrosporum folliculitis (2018)
                                                              •   Sporotrichosis (2018)
                                                              •   Tinea manuum (2018)
                                                              •   Candidal balanitis (2018)
                                                              •   Mycobacterium marinum skin infection (2019)
                                                              •   Majocchi’s granuloma (2019)
                                                              •   Infectious folliculitis (fungal) (2019)
                                                              •   Infectious folliculitis (viral) (2019)
                                                                  Infectious folliculitis (bacterial) (2019)
                                                              •   Talaromyces (Penicillium) marneffei infection
                                                              •   Tuberculoid leprosy (2019)
                                                              •   Borderline lepromatous leprosy (2019)
                                                              •   Lepromatous leprosy (2019)
                                                              •   Type 1 lepra reaction (2019)
                                                              •   Type 2 lepra reaction (2019)
                                                              •   Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis (2020)
                                                              •   Lichen scrofulosorum (2020)
                                                              •   Focal epithelial hyperplasia (2020)
                                                              •   Chilblain-COVID-19-like skin lesions (2020)
                                                              •   Syphilis (penile annular syphiloderm) (2020)

*Including arthropod bites and stings




2                                                                        Commentary | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(1):e2023021
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Commentary | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(1):e2023021                                                                            3
