Introduction: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease involving skin and peripheral nerves and certain other tissues. It is classified into five groups based on clinical, histopathological, and bacteriological criteria tuberculoid (TT), borderline tuberculoid (BT), mid-borderline (BB), borderline lepromatous (BL), lepromatous (LL) according to Ridley-Jopling classification. Clinical classification gives recognition only to the gross appearance of lesions, while histopathological classification parameters are well-defined and precise thus, it provides confirmatory information for suspect cases which might be missed clinically. This study is conducted to correlate between clinical and histopathological diagnosis of leprosy.
Material and Methods: This research was a retrospective study of three years from August’20 to July’23. A total of 100 cases were studied in the Histopathology Laboratory, Department of Pathology, SIMS, Hapur.
Result: There was a total of 100 cases; out of which 68 (68%) were males. Most cases were in the age group 15-30 years comprising 44 % males. Maximum number of patients clinically belonged to borderline lepromatous leprosy in 44% of cases. Histologically, borderline tuberculoid leprosy was the most common type in 36% of cases. The maximum clinical-histopathological correlation was seen in LL (100%) followed by TT (92.1%), BT (81.8%), and BL (50%).
Conclusion: Clinical features in leprosy indicate morphological changes due to underlying pathology while the histopathological features indicate accurate response of the tissues. Classification of leprosy requires attention to histopathological criteria and correlation with clinical information to facilitate accurate therapy according to the proper treatment category and to prevent complications.
