Study of Morphological Patterns of Leprosy in a Rural Setup

Abstract

BACKGROUND Leprosy is a chronic disease of ancient world and is still afflicting patients in many parts of world mainly Asia and Africa. Leprosy is one of the most dreaded diseases of humankind. We wanted to study the various microscopic patterns and subtypes of Leprosy. We also wanted to study the Bacterial Index in the region of Sawangi, Meghe. METHODS 80 skin biopsies after adequate fixation in 10% of formalin, were routinely processed and were stained with H and E, Fite-Faraco stain and Modified Rapid Acid-Fast Bacilli (MRAFB staining) method, were studied microscopically and bacterial index was calculated. RESULTS A total of 80 skin biopsies were obtained from patients of department of dermatology over a period of two years from 2017 to 2019. Among them Lepromatous leprosy were 43 cases, Tuberculoid leprosy were 23 cases, Borderline lepromatous leprosy were 09 cases, Borderline tuberculoid leprosy were 03 cases, histoid leprosy were 01 case and ENL were 01 case. With an age range of 6-85 years, majority were in 31-40 years of age group, with male to female ratio of 2.47:1. LL was the most common type of leprosy (53.75%). CONCLUSIONS Accurate diagnosis of leprosy purely on clinical grounds is extremely difficult. Hence, there can be false positive and false negative diagnosis. Since histopathology is confirmatory, with application of Fite-Faraco and MRAFB staining it can also evaluate the bacterial load. Hence in all suspected cases of leprosy, histopathology along with Fite-Faraco and MRAFB staining should compulsorily be done.