Clinicopathological correlation in the diagnosis of skin diseases: A retrospective study

Introduction: Skin biopsy is an indispensable tool in dermatological diagnosis.Various factors that influence the outcome of a biopsy include information recorded on the histopathology request form by the treating dermatologist to the reporting pathologist. Conversely, a good biopsy report is vital for the clinician to arrive at a diagnosis. Materials And Methods: The present study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in the form of a retrospective investigation of histopathology requisition forms and reports of skin and mucosal biopsies done over a period of one year.If the pathological diagnosis was definite and matched one of the clinical diagnoses, it was grouped under the category definite and consistent. If the pathologist gave a descriptive diagnosis that matched one of the clinical diagnoses, it was grouped under the category descriptive and consistent. If the pathologist gave a definite diagnosis that did not match any of the clinical diagnoses, it was grouped under definite and inconsistent and if the pathological diagnosis was descriptive and did not match any clinical diagnoses, it was grouped under descriptive and inconsistent. Data analysis was done using R Statistical Software v3.6.0 (R Statistical Corp, Vienna, Austria). Level of significance was set at p