Abortive hemangiomas. Description of clinical and pathological findings with special emphasis on dermoscopy

Abstract

Infantile hemangiomas (IH) are the most commonly found benign neoplasia in childhood. Up to a third of IH may be present at birth and develop in 3 clearly defined stages. In their endothelial cells, IH express an erythocyte type glucose transport protein (GLUT-1), highly specific to this type of lesion, which enables them to be differentiated from other types of vascular lesions, including congenital hemangiomas (RICH or NICH) and capillary malformations. We present clinical, dermoscopic and histological descriptions of two patients with vascular lesions present at birth whose immunohistochemical GLUT-1 confirmed that they were IH, although their course was not characteristic of this type of lesion. These IH have been called abortive or minimal-growth hemangiomas (AH). We believe that this is the first dermoscopic description of AH and suggest that this technique is a useful diagnostic tool that enables diagnosis to be made without the need for a biopsy.