Open AccessUse of fine needle aspirate from peripheral nerves of pure-neural leprosy for cytology and PCR to confirm the diagnosis: A pilot study
Author(s) -
Abu Hena Hasanoor Reja,
Abhishek De,
Supratik Biswas,
Amitabha Chattopadhyay,
Gobinda Chatterjee,
Basudev Bhattacharya,
Aarti Sarda,
Ishad Aggarwal
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
indian journal of dermatology, venereology, and leprology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.514
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 0973-3922
pISSN - 0378-6323
DOI - 10.4103/0378-6323.120731
Subject(s) - medicine , leprosy , staining , pathology , cytology , mycobacterium leprae , multiplex , biopsy , multiplex polymerase chain reaction , fine needle aspiration , polymerase chain reaction , biology , bioinformatics , biochemistry , gene
The diagnosis of pure neural leprosy (PNL) remained subjective because of over-dependence of clinical expertise and a lack of simple yet reliable diagnostic tool. The criteria for diagnosis, proposed by Jardim et al., are not routinely done by clinicians in developing country as it involves invasive nerve biopsy and sophisticated anti-PGL-1 detection. We conducted a study using fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) coupled with Ziehl Neelsen staining (ZN staining) and Multiplex-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) specific for M. leprae for an objective diagnosis of pure neural leprosy (PNL), which may be simpler and yet reliable.