Abstract :
Background: Leprosy is known to man since ancient times. Leprosy bacillus was discovered by
Gerhard Henrick Armauer Hansen in 1873. Ridley-Jopling classification takes into consideration clinical,
bacteriological, histopathological and immunological factor. The present study was done to correlate
clinical and histopathological diagnosis.
Materials and Methods : Fifty newly diagnosed cases of leprosy were included in the study during the
period from August 2011 to August 2013. H and E stained sections were observed for histopathological
features and classified according to Ridley & Jopling classification and a clinicopathological correlation
was made.
Result: Maximum numbers of cases diagnosed histopathologically belonged to borderline tuberculoid
18(36%) cases. Hundred percent correlation was seen between clinical diagnosis and histopathological
diagnosis in tuberculoid leprosy. The overall clinico-histopathological correlation in our study was 62%.
Conclusion: Histopathological classification is accurate as it considers immunologic response of the tissue,
whereas clinical classification considers only gross appearances of the lesions. Borderline leprosy cases are
in a continuous changing immunological spectrum and histopathologic classification identifies any recent
shift of a case in the spectrum.
Keyword :
Histopathology, Leprosy, Ridley-Jopling’s classification.