Comment on “‘Tape dermatoscopy’: constructing a low-cost dermatoscope using a mobile phone, immersion fluid and transparent adhesive tape”

We read with interest the article published by Blum and Gia-comel, describing the low-cost dermatoscope designed using a mobile phone, immersion fluid and transparent adhesive tape. The method described by the authors has the advantage that it does not require any magnifying device [1]. We earlier described a technique where a low-cost jeweler's loupe can be used as a dermoscopy device [2], and a modification of this where the loupe can be attached to any mobile phone and be used for mobile dermatoscopic imaging [3]. We used a jeweler's loupe with an inbuilt LED lighting system (Figure 1), and we used alcohol gel as the fluid, which is used to reduce the reflection from the stratum corneum. In our apparatus, too, the imaging is done from a distance without actual contact with the fluid. The loupe is held at a distance of about 5 cm from the skin after a sufficiently thick layer of alcohol gel is applied over the skin (Figure 2). The technique is not " true " dermoscopy as such, but helps to visualize basic dermoscopic features. Compared to the technique described by Blum and Giacomel [1], we feel that the magnification actually adds to the quality of the image (and here it is true magnification, not Citation: Kaliyadan F, Ashique KT. Comment on " 'Tape dermatoscopy': constructing a low-cost dermatoscope using a mobile phone, immersion fluid and transparent adhesive tape. Copyright: ©2016 Kaliyadan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Figure 1. Jeweller's loupe with inbuilt LED lighting attached to the camera of a Samsung Note 3 ® mobile phone. [Copyright: ©2016 Kaliyadan et al.] Figure 2. Imaging of the lesion with the mobile phone. [Copyright: ©2016 Kaliyadan et al.]