High-frequency ultrasound in genodermatoses
摘要
Genodermatoses comprise a heterogeneous group of hereditary skin diseases, which are often characterized by fluctuating severity, incomplete penetrance, and age-related onset, and this makes them hard to identify and treat very early. Traditional dermatologic evaluation has still limited ability to evaluate subclinical disease or objective tracking treatment effects. High-frequency ultrasound has proved to be a non-invasive, reproducible imaging modality that can be used to visualize in detail the epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis and detect some pathological changes that cannot be identified by clinical ex-amination. High-frequency ultrasound in combination with dermoscopy, reflectance confocal microscopy, and optical coherence tomography can improve disease diagnosis, and possibly objectively assess treatment result. This narrative review highlights the increasing role of ultrasound in genodermatoses.