[Conjunctival bacilloscopy in leprosy diagnosis and follow-up].

Purpose: To identify Mycobacterium leprae in ocular conjunctivae and evaluate conjunctival bacilloscopy as leprosy diagnosis and follow-up test.

Methods: We used the superior tarsal conjunctiva scraping technique in 52 newly diagnosed leprosy patients between July and September 2004 at the "Oculistas Associados de Brasília", in Brasília, DF, Brazil, and compared the conjunctival bacilloscopy with skin bacilloscopy.

Results: Both the conjunctival bacilloscopy index (CBI) and skin bacilloscopy index (SBI) showed correlation since Pearson's r and Cohen kappa measure of agreement were respectively 76.