Clinical Synopsis and Color Atlas of Skin Tumors

AS Kumar

 Department of Dermatology, Deccan College of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad - 500 058, Telangana, India

Correspondence Address:
A S Kumar
Department of Dermatology, Deccan College of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad - 500 058, Telangana
India

Editiors: Iffat Hassan and Peerzada Sajad Ahmad

Publisher: New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, India

ISBN 978-93-5090-945-4

Edition: First, 2014

Pages: 58

INR 795/-

A color atlas of skin tumors in Indian skin is a good idea as there are no publications in this area, particularly for Fitzpatrick skin types 4-6. As there are several shades of brown and black, the tumors look vastly different from those in people with white skin. A clinical synopsis should help in differential diagnosis with the help of histopathology. In this book, some tumors are easy to identify clinically, most need confirmation by biopsy. With hardly any points in differential diagnosis, the synopsis needs a bit of expansion on that score. In these days of digital imaging and high resolution photography, professional help can be sought to improve and highlight the lesions: the image of pilomatricoma can be passed off for normal pinched skin and syringomas are difficult to make out because the eyes have been blurred. While cylindroma and sebaceous nevus are good for spotters, clear cell acanthoma is only a differential diagnosis, clinched by histology. A few salient histological points would add value to the book as most cannot be "diagnosed at a glance". Multiple pictures of the same condition are of value when they convey different morphologies or clinical sites or presentation, e.g. all three keratoacanthomas are similar, so also the three leiomyomas and three sebaceous nevi. Erythema and telangiectasia would be reproduced better on glossy paper, though it would be costlier. Definition of edge of a lesion should be clear cut; otherwise, superficial actinic keratosis can pass off for fixed drug eruption. Improving the quality of pictures, adding a few points in the differential diagnosis and including salient histological notes and photomicrographs, e.g. "tadpoles" in syringoma and eel like cell in leiomyoma would benefit students also and the next edition would probably take care of these suggestions. As the foreword says, the attempt at this atlas deserves appreciation, for a maiden attempt.