Background. Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous disease, caused by Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae), principally affecting peripheral nerves and skin. To date, the role of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in different types of leprosy has not been studied, except for their role in neuropathy. Objective. to investigate the changes in expression and distribution of MMP-3 and MMP-9 in biopsies take...

Although dapsone (DDS) continues to b~ the standard treatment for the majority of leprosy patients, alternative drugs are required fbr the therapy of the ever increasing number of patients developing sulphone resistance . Because a high proportion of patients with active lepromatous leprosy in Malaysia now have DDS resistance (mouse foot-pad proven) , they have been used in many of our long-ter...

The recent introduction of diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS) and the thiosemicarbazones represents a significant contribution in the treatment of leprosy. The efficacy of DDS has been confirmed by a number of well-controlled observations (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11). The effectiveness of thiosemicarbazone still remains to be evaluated (3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14). For both drugs, the periods of observation have...

U n der the conditions of this s tudy, dapsone in d oses of 5 mg and 10 mg daily when ad ministered to p atients with lepromat ous leprosy is an ineffe ctive therapy in terms of killing and elimin ation of My co. leprae from human skin and b one marrow . A real danger of facili tating the emergence of resistant bacilli exists . Therefore , un til there is more evidence from long term therapeuti...

Partha Sarathi Mohanty1*, Preeti Singh1, Avi Kumar Bansal2 and Umesh Datta Gupta3 1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, National JALMA Institute for Leprosy and Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Agra 2Clinical Division, National JALMA Institute for Leprosy and Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Agra 3Department of Animal Experimentation, National JALMA Institute for Leprosy and Other Mycoba...

We report a 77-year-old man from Italy with a painful, red right eye with decreased vision (Figure 1A) and multiple asymptomatic erythematous infiltrated nodules and edematous plaques on the face (Figure 1B), tongue (Figure 1C), and trunk and extremities (Figure 1D). Lesions appeared on his face 20 years ago and progressively enlarged and diffused on the trunk. Two of his relatives had been aff...

The histories of 38 consecutive cases of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) arising in chronic ulcers of leprosy patients treated between 1981 and 1990 at the McKean Rehabilitation Centre, Northern Thailand were analysed retrospectively. The study included 37 individual patients; 29 males and 8 females. The average age was 60 years, the average duration of leprosy was 34 years and the average durati...

Single dose vaccination was carried out with Mycobacterium habana vaccine, 31 lepromatous leprosy cases receiving 1.5 mg (1.5 mg = 6.27 x 10(8) bacilli) and 36 household contacts randomly receiving 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 mg vaccine intradermally. Duration of study was 18 weeks. Vaccination induced lepromin conversion in 100% of lepromatous leprosy cases and lepromin negative household contacts and augme...

The riminophenazine deriva tive B.663, first synthesized by Barry et. aZ. (~), was shown by Browne and Hogerzeil in 1962, (5. G) to be effective in the treatment of lepromatous leprosy. This finding has been confirmed by a number of centers (1. 8. ] O. ]3 , 18) . In particular, at the Leprosy Hesearch Unit, Sungei Buloh Leprosarium, considerable experience has been gained in the use of B.663 in...

A double-blind controlled trial in 24 lepromatous leprosy patients in reaction showed that clofazimine (Lamprene) controlled symptoms of erythema nodosum leprosum reaction in lepromatous leprosy better than prednisolone. Clofazimine also appeared to be significantly superior in preventing recurrence once the reaction had been controlled. There was a statistically significant rise in serum album...