In the last 20 years, the world of dermatology has been marked by moments of deep restructuring such as the advent of the retinoids, cyclosporine and recently of the biological molecules just to give a few examples in the field of therapy.
On the other hand, in diagnosis, experts have been able for a long time to count on a requirement “stable" enough because entirely connected to his/her visual acuteness and to his/her clinical-deductive perspicacity.
However, all this has changed thanks to the introduction of the dermatoscope.
Initially welcomed with certain skepticism, we know well how much it has been able to complicate our professional life or facilitate it in terms of precocious diagnosis as in melanomas.
Today to place an instrument on the skin has become a spontaneous gesture as the stethoscope for the internist, the otoscope for otolaryngologist, the ophthalmoscope for the ophthalmologist and so on. Although with some delay, finally the dermatologist has stopped being "orphan" of a representative instrument.
Dermatoscope has literally changed the way of examining the skin affirming itself in such a way as an ordinary magnifying lens has never done in the whole history of dermatology. We have had access to an unattainable world of signs to the naked eye, some merely descriptive but not less important for our general knowledge, others instead, with a remarkable clinical outcome.
The number of publications being issued, confirms how vital this sector has become, giving everyone and anyone the possibility to describe something new even on past diseases or apparently ordinary ones.
But if we reflect, the field in which the dermatologist has found himself more unprepared has been about the complexity of insect universe, living on or inside the human skin. In fact the smallest entomologic competence which has always been necessary, has suddenly become insufficient today.
For example in the world of lice, enhanced by the fact that it develops outside the skin unlike acari, larvae and worms, the dermatoscope has brought new information on the biology and parasite behavior producing an interest parallel to that of the entomologists.
The entodermoscopy (or entomodermoscopy) is a 10x dermoscopy aimed to investigate bugs and their environment which by pure chance happens to be our skin. In a certain way the dermatoscope has introduced an approach which reminds us the ecological-ethological manner to study animals, avoiding to interfere with their habitat. A slide in fact does not represent the best place to understand the conduct of an insect which chooses to live on our skin.
However to understand better this new dimension, the dermatologist should enrich his/her entomologic competences by acquiring a new lexicon and a technical knowledge not too easy to come by. Sharing other researchers experiences, this site on entodermoscopy wants to help the impassioned dermatologists to simply acquire what every one of them has already learned by studying the same or different type of ectoparassitosis.
Moreover the site will also be open to contributions by entomologists also interested in improving their dermatologic knowledge and competences.
The result of these interactions could after some time bring positive outcomes not only in the field of pure speculation but also in diagnosis and preferably in therapy.
Personally I would be happy if whoever decides to participate in this site could do it with a spirit similar to that of the 19th century researchers, who with their simple microscopes and so much desire of to know, succeeded in building the bases of our present science.
Dr. Gaetano Scanni - Bari, 2009-08-20