Role of histopathology in diagnosis of leprosy- A tertiary care hospital based study

Introduction: Leprosy is continuous spectrum of varied clinicopathological manifestations of the disease.1 leprosy still continues to be one of major health problem due to consequent disabilities and social stigma.2,3 Timely diagnosis helps in proper treatment and reduce the chances of recurrence. It is chronic infection which affects skin and peripheral nerves.4,5 The nerve biopsies are difficult, diagnosis mainly depends upon clinical examination of skin lesions and histopathological diagnosis. Most of leprosy cases were diagnosed without histopathological examination.6 The aim of the present study was to know the Role of skin biopsy in diagnosing leprosy cases. Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional comparative study of skin biopsies of clinically suspected or diagnosed leprosy cases coming to the tertiary care hospital. Results: Sixty two (62) biopsies were included in the study. All biopsies were classified histologically compared with clinical diagnosis. Out of 62 cases, BB was the main clinical diagnosis comprising 19(30.6%) followed by BL 16(25.8%), LL 11(17.8%), IND 9(14.5%), BT 5(8.1%) and TT 2(3.2%) remaining. Out of these 62 cases, 40 (64.5%) cases histopathological diagnosis were agreed with clinical diagnosis. Conclusion: Histological examination is an important tool in the accurate diagnosis of leprosy. Indeterminate and borderline leprosy cases diagnosed on clinical grounds are difficult due to it's varied presentation and could mimic with other diseases, therefore histopathological examination is useful to confirm diagnosis and accurate typing of leprosy for proper treatment.