This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Nevi  • Alert me on articles by topic

The Starburst Pattern

Richard Marchell, MD; Ashfaq A. Marghoob, MD; Ralph P. Braun, MD; Giuseppe Argenziano, MD
Departments of Dermatology, Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook, NY (Dr Marchell), University Hospital Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland (Dr Braun), and Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy (Dr Argenziano); and the Dermatology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY (Dr Marghoob)

Arch Dermatol. 2005;141:1060.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 145 words of the full text and any section headings.

The 4 lesions shown are all biopsy-proven Spitz or Reed nevi found on patients in their third decade of life. The unifying pattern present in all 4 images has been likened to an exploding star and is simply referred to as the "starburst" pattern. Homogeneous blue-gray or black-brown pigmentation is present centrally. The peripheral structures that give the impression of an exploding star may be regularly arranged streaks or radially streaming lines (Figure 1), pseudopods (Figure 2), or globules (Figure 3). One may also observe a combination of structures, such as streaks and pseudopods (Figure 4), forming the starburst pattern. More than half of Spitz and Reed nevi present with this typical starburst dermoscopic pattern.

Figure appears in full text version. Figure 1.

Figure appears in full text version. Figure 2.

Figure appears in full text version. Figure 3.

Figure appears in full text version. Figure 4.

SECTION EDITOR: JAMES M. GRICHNIK, MD, PhD