International Journal of Research in Dermatology | July-August 2021 | Vol 7 | Issue 4 Page 538
International Journal of Research in Dermatology
Nijhawan M et al. Int J Res Dermatol. 2021 Jul;7(4):538-542
http://www.ijord.com
Original Research Article
Clinicopathological correlation in the diagnosis of granulomatous
cutaneous disorders: a retrospective study
Manisha Nijhawan, Divya Yadav*, Shivi Nijhawan, Damini Shaktawat
INTRODUCTION
‘Granuloma’ is defined as a focal chronic inflammatory
response to tissue injury characterized by a collection of
activated histiocytes, epithelioid cells with variable
numbers of admixed multinucleated giant cells and
inflammatory cells that may or may not be rimmed by
lymphocytes and or show central necrosis. Virchow
described the term “granulomatous” as a tumor-like mass
or nodule of granulation tissue.
1,2
Granulomatous disorders are a diagnostic challenge to
dermatologists due to similar histological features and
varied clinical presentations.
Therefore, clinic-histopathological correlation of
granulomatous disease plays a pivotal role in diagnosis.
In Dermatology skin biopsy is often considered as
confirmatory in case of diagnostic dilemma and is the
most common investigation sought by a dermatologist.
Dermascopy is also used as diagnostic tool but skin
biopsy is considered as gold standard investigation. The
aim of this study was to determine the relative indications
of skin biopsies in granulomatous groups of skin
disorders and to evaluate the clinicopathological
consistency in diagnosis of granulomatous skin disorders.
The objective of the study is to correlate clinical and
histopathological features of granulomatous skin disorder
to arrive at a conclusive diagnosis.
METHODS
This was a retrospective study over a period of three
years at a tertiary care centre in Jaipur. Total number of
ABSTRACT
Background: To ascertain the various cutaneous granulomatous disorders and clinicopathological concordance in
skin biopsies.
Methods: The study included the patients with skin biopsy showing granulomatous infiltrate in a tertiary care center.
The cases were categorized according to level of concordance into consistent, corroborative and inconsistent based on
the concurrence between clinical and histological diagnosis.
Results: Of the total 155 granulomatous disorder, 75.48% showed clinicopathological concordance, 19.35% showed
corroborative diagnosis while 5.16% were inconsistent. The maximum number of biopsies performed were in the
group of young adult (19-49 years, 57.41%). The most common type of granuloma found was of tuberculoid type and
disorders were Hansen’s disease, fungal infection and cutaneous tuberculosis.
Conclusions: Our study showed that the coordination of dermatologist and pathologist plays a pivotal role in making
accurate diagnosis of granulomatous cutaneous dermatoses.
Keywords: Biopsy, Clinicopathological correlation, Granuloma
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2455-4529.IntJResDermatol20212549
Department of Dermatology, Mahatma Gandhi medical college, jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Received: 28 May 2021
Accepted: 16 June 2021
*Correspondence:
Dr. Divya Yadav,
E-mail: rockin.diva3@gmail.com
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.