Clinicopathological Concordance in Diagnosis of Dermatological Disorders; A Retrospective Analysis.

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the correlation between clinical and histopathological diagnoses in various dermatological disorders.
Methods: Histopathological reports of 669 patients were analyzed retrospectively, between March 2017 and March 2019, in the Department of Dermatology, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. The consistency between clinical and histopathological diagnoses was analyzed in five groups, namely: (A) descriptive histopathological diagnoses favoring primary clinical diagnoses, (B) definite pathological diagnoses consistent with primary clinical diagnoses, (C) definite pathological diagnoses consistent with one of the provisional clinical diagnoses other than the primary diagnoses, (D) definite pathological diagnoses inconsistent with clinical diagnoses, and
(E)inadequate sample requiring repeat biopsy. First three groups showed consistency while latter two groups showed inconsistence or inadequacy of sample.
Results: The histopathological diagnoses were consistent with clinical diagnoses in 464 biopsies (69.35%), and were inconsistent or inadequate in 205 biopsies (30.64%). Most of the biopsies were evaluated by the pathologists in the presence of clinical diagnoses.
Conclusions: In clinical dermatology, providing adequate clinical data is of utmost importance in order to get accurate dermatopathological diagnosis.