Introduction

Cherry angiomas are among the most common skin lesions you will encounter in clinical practice. They are benign vascular proliferations — clusters of dilated capillaries that form small, bright red to purple papules on the skin. Almost every adult over the age of thirty has at least a few, and their prevalence increases steadily with age.

Under the dermatoscope, cherry angiomas have one of the most recognisable patterns in all of dermoscopy. When the classic features are present, identification is reliable and straightforward — making this an ideal lesion for building your confidence with vascular pattern recognition.

But this module is not just about recognising cherry angiomas. It is about understanding how blood vessels appear through the dermatoscope, because vascular patterns play a critical role in evaluating many different lesion types — benign and malignant alike. Cherry angiomas give you a clean, unambiguous starting point for learning to read these patterns.

What you will learn

1. Recognise the classic dermoscopic features of cherry angioma
2. Understand how vascular structures appear under dermoscopy
3. Identify common variants including thrombosed and early angiomas
4. Differentiate cherry angiomas from other red or vascular lesions
5. Know when a vascular-appearing lesion warrants further evaluation

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