The dermoscopic classification of atypical melanocytic naevi (Clark naevi) is useful to discriminate benign from malignant melanocytic lesions

Summary Background The dermoscopic classification is a useful tool for handling patients with atypical naevi (Clark naevi). Objectives To investigate if the dermoscopic classification of atypical naevi is of any value to discriminate benign from malignant melanocytic lesions. Methods Consecutive patients (n = 205) were included with 254 suspicious melanocytic lesions, confirmed by histopathology at the Pigmented Lesions Clinic of the Department of Dermatology, University Medical Center, University of Tuebingen, Germany. In this retrospective study, dermoscopic images of benign and malignant melanocytic lesions were classified according to the dermoscopic classification of atypical naevi (reticular, globular, homogeneous or combinations of two of these) and pigmentation (uniform, central hyper‐ or hypopigmentation, eccentric peripheral hyper‐ or hypopigmentation, or multifocal hyper‐ or hypopigmentation). The three‐structure type (reticular, globular and homogeneous) was additionally defined. Results Reticular, homogeneous and reticular–homogeneous types were significantly more frequent in naevi than in melanomas, whereas the three‐structure type was significantly more frequent in melanomas (P