Corticosteroids are the drugs of choice for treatment of type 1 leprosy reactions, but when these agents cannot be used because of their adverse effects, alternative treatments are needed. We report the first case, to our knowledge, of a type 1 leprosy reaction that was successfully treated with methotrexate in a patient intolerant to corticosteroids who had borderline lepromatous leprosy.

Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae , clinically present either as tuberculoid, borderline or lepromatous type. Erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) is an acute humoral response in the chronic course of lepromatous leprosy. Although very severe ENL reactions are known in systemic leprosy, such severity is rare in ocular tissues. A leprosy uveitis patient suffere...

A total of 907 cases of leprosy from two sources, records from Baba-Baghi Leprosarium (709 cases) and Ahar case finding survey (198 cases), have been studied. The main characteristics of the cases are: a) about 50% of all cases are lepromatous leprosy; b) the leprosarium cases are about 2.5 years younger; c) about 70% of all cases are male; and d) the incidence of leprosy shows a steady increas...

Analysis by Western immunoblotting of Mycobacterium bovis BCG short-term culture filtrates with a pool of serum samples from lepromatous leprosy patients revealed an immunodominant protein doublet with apparent molecular masses of 28 and 30 kilodaltons (kDa). The humoral response to these antigens was also investigated by using individual serum samples from patients representative of the whole ...

Neurotrophins are growth factors with crucial roles in neural pathophysiology. These mediators functionally modulate nociceptive fibers, and changes in neurotrophins expression have been correlated with early loss of nociception in leprosy. This study investigated the expression of NGF, BDNF, and NT3 in dermal nerves of leprosy patients. Characterization of Remak bundles was achieved by p75(NTR...

Hundreds of new leprosy cases are still diagnosed in Dakar despite all the efforts in the struggle by the national program for elimination of leprosy by the Institute of Applied Leprosy in Dakar. The aim of our study was to evaluate the epidemiological, clinicopathological and outcome of new cases of leprosy. A prospective study was conducted over a period of one year listing all new cases of l...

This study sought to verify the correlation between leprosy types and the adverse effects of treatment drugs. This quantitative, prospective, nested study was developed at the Dona Libânia Dermatology Centre in Fortaleza, Brazil. Data were collected from November 2007-November 2008. During this period, 818 leprosy patients were diagnosed and began treatment. Forty patients with tuberculoid lepr...

BACKGROUND/AIM Peripheral nerve destruction is the hallmark of leprosy. Ocular complications form a substantial part of the clinical manifestations but histopathology of nerve destruction within ocular structures has not been shown satisfactorily. The role of protein gene product (PGP) 9.5 in identifying nerve destruction in the ciliary body and posterior ciliary nerves of lepromatous eyes is s...