Dermoscopy and clinicopathology features in diagnosing paucibacillary leprosy: Case series

A wide variety of leprosy clinical manifestations poses an early diagnostic challenge. Currently, various diagnostic modalities have been developed to optimize the definite diagnostic of leprae. Leprosy diagnosis was established based on the presence of either hypopigmented or reddish skin lesions accompanied with loss of sensation, peripheral nerve involvement, and a positive skin-slit smear (SSS) test result for acid-fast bacilli. Resemblance of leprosy skin lesions to excessively many other differential diagnoses, unclear nerve involvement, and negative results of SSS in paucibacillary (PB) leprosy become a diagnostic veil to clinicians. Furthermore, an additional modality for PB leprosy is needed as an important way to prevent misdiagnoses and complications of leprosy. Commonly, a biopsy or polymerase chain reaction examination is performed to exclude other similarly presenting diseases. Dermoscopy examination, the noninvasive technique that allows a better examination to visualize skin lesions, along with clinicopathology features of skin lesions can help to establish the diagnosis of PB leprosy.