Introduction & Objectives: Psoriasiform dermatoses refer to a group of disorders, which clinically and or histologically, simulate psoriasis. The similar clinical pattern has been described in many unrelated disorders in literature. To the diagnostic armamentarium has been added a comparatively new technique called dermoscopy.

Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 172 patients presenting with psoriasiform plaques diagnosed clinically. The dermoscopic findings of representative lesion was performed and recorded as per five standardized parameters of inflammoscopy.

Results: The encountered psoriasiform dermatosis included 13 disorders namely psoriasis vulgaris (PV) in 59.3%, pityriasis rosea (PR) in 8.7%, eczema and seborrheic dermatitis (SD) in 7.6%, pityriasis lichenoides chronica (PLC) in 3.5%, leprosy in 2.9%, lupus vulgaris (LV) and secondary syphilis (SS) in 2.3%, lupus erythematosus (LE) and eczematoid pigmented purpuric dermatosis (PPD) in 1.7%, reactive arthritis (ReA) and pemphigus foliaceous (PF) in 1.2% and tinea incognito in 0.5%. Male gender was more affected than female gender with the male: female ratio of 2.37:1. Although psoriasiform skin lesions are seen in all age groups, majority of study population in our study cohort are middle aged (31-40 years). The presenting complaints were red raised lesions in 100% and itching in 91.28%. The clinical examination revealed erythematous plaques (89.5%) were the most common morphology, along with adherent scale in 32.5% patients. The most common distribution was extensor seen in 39.5% however trunk was involved in majority 69.8%.The salient features in other disorders seen were, linear vessel with varied morphology 100% in leprosy, yellow dots with linear vessels in LV, peripheral scaling (75%) in SS, follicular plug and perifollicular pigmentation (33.3%) in LE and clustered brown dots (100%) in PPD. ReA had similar features of PV. PF showed non uniform red rots with patchy white scales (75%). Tinea incognito revealed diffuse white scales.

Conclusion: The study identified various conditions that may present with psoriasiform skin lesions. As good clinical acumen is essential to differentiate between them. The specific dermoscopic findings can help differentiate it from its different morphological mimickers with good degree of certainty.