Vitiligo examination

For typical vitiligo, it can be diagnosed directly without examination generally. This is because vitiligo is very clearly characterized as milky white or porcelain white with clear borders and may have pigmented rings around the edges, and can occur anywhere on the body with no scales on the surface, no self-perceived symptoms, and the hair at the white spots can turn white with it. For vitiligo with atypical symptoms, Wood’s lamp, dermoscopy or skin CT can be used to help confirm the diagnosis. Skin CT is more visual and accurate. Melanin has the highest refractive index in confocal imaging and appears as a bright structure, which allows differentiation of vitiligo from other white spots by comparing the melanin content of the lesions with the surrounding normal tissue. Under skin CT, the rash area of vitiligo is completely depigmented, while other white spots, such as anaplastic nevi, anemic nevi, and lichen planus, can be differentiated by histopathological or fungal microscopic examination. Vitiligo patients, sometimes combined with other endocrine and autoimmune diseases, so to do blood routine, thyroid function examination to exclude pernicious anemia, diabetes, thyroid disease, etc.