Ito described a dermal melanosis that is similar to the nevus of Ota but with a different neural distribution.
Features of the nevus of Ito:
(1) dermal melanosis
(2) located along the distribution of the posterior supraclavicular and cutaneous brachii lateralis nerves (over supraclavicular, scapular and deltoid regions)
(3) rarely may have extracutaneous melanosis (palate, etc)
(4) rarely may transform into a malignant melanoma
Very rarely a patient may have both a nevus of Ota and a nevus of Ito.
Mukhopadhyay et al proposed an extesnsion of Tanino's classification for nevus of Ota to include nevus of Ito.
Nevus of Ito
|
Nevus of Ota
|
Modified Tanino
|
unilateral
|
absent
|
Type VA
|
bilateral
|
absent
|
Type VB
|
unilateral
|
unilateral
|
Type VIA
|
unilateral
|
bilateral
|
Type VIB
|
bilateral
|
unilateral
|
Type VIC
|
where:
• In theory both the nevus of Ito and nevus of Ota can be bilateral.
• For Type VIA the nevi types may be ipsilateral or contralateral.
• The presence of an extracutaneous manifestation may be indicated by adding "E" as a suffix to the type.