Role of capillary microscopy in the differential diagnosis of cutaneous angiomatous lesions of the newborn.

Abstract

Sometimes, the angiomatous lesions of the skin in the newborn cannot be easily classified in the first days of life. In the last three years 25 newborns with precursory lesions of hemangioma (HE) and 12 with port-wine stain (PWS) were investigated with an optic probe videocapillaroscopy at 200x magnification. The study was carried out during the first 48 hours of life and about 20 days later. In the two groups of patients different and easily differentiable capillaroscopy findings were observed, confirming the usefulness of this examination in the differential diagnosis of angiomatous lesions. Particularly, the flat precursory lesions of HE showed an irregular and dilated subpapillary plexus with findings reminiscent of microaneurisms, sometimes with a rosary distribution (Presented in the International Congress of Neonatal Dermatology, Bari, Italy, September 24-27, 1998).