Survey of the diagnostic value of leishmania in skin lesions in patients through direct smear and culture media

Leishmeniosis is one of the Zoonoses to which humans have been exposed since 650 years before the birth of Christ. It seems that each year two million people are afflicted with this disease. Usually the diagnostic method of skin Leishmaniosis is taking samples from the lesions and evaluating the slides in the laboratory. This study was done to camper the value of leishmania skin lesions through observation and culture. In this cross-sectional study the patients with suspicious skin lesions who referred to Shahid Faghihi hospital were asked questions on age, sex, accupction, the affected part and the place of living. A separate sample was taken from each lesion and then we evaluated the slides and the cultures. All the samples were evaluated by the same technician and method and then the data were analyzed, using SPSS and statistical package. The results of 252 patients, 50.8% males and 49% female, most of them were students (29.4%) and the least teachers or staffs (4.8%). The most of lesions were in upper organs, 42.9% of the lesions positive and 57% were negative the survey of lesion culture indicates that 57.5% were positive and 42.5% were negatives. If the provided slides from the lesions were surveyed completely and half hour, the presence and lack of the parasite will be cleared and no more information will be gained for more exact diagnosis of leishmania to slide direct survey.