Over the course of their nearly 30-year history, the ABCD(E) criteria have been used globally in medical education and in the lay press to provide simple parameters for assessment of pigmented lesions that need to be further evaluated by a dermatologist. In this article, the efficacy and limitations of the ABCDE criteria as both a clinical tool and a public message will be reviewed.
Keywords: ABCDE; criteria; detection; diagnosis; melanoma; screening.
Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.