Histoid leprosy, an uncommon variant of lepromatous leprosy, develops usually as relapse in lepromatous patients who are on dapsone monotherapy, but uncommonly arises de novo. This rare form of the disease, with unique clinical and histopathological features, may pose a diagnostic challenge even to astute clinicians. We report the case that occurred de novo in an elderly who presented with smal...

The role of immunity in leprosy has attracted great interest. Studies of immune mechanisms in patients with lepromatous leprosy. have indicated that these patients suffer not only from hyporeactive state of cell-mediated immune responses (20), but also from hyperreactivity of antibodymediated immune mechanisms (6). The latter findings are based on tests which include complement fixation, hemagg...

Using a costimulant assay, in vitro Con A responses of patients across the leprosy spectrum were found to be markedly suppressed by phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I), a unique antigen of M. leprae. The degree of inducible suppression as well as the number of leprosy patients showing suppression of mitogenic responses was higher with PGL-I as compared with integral M. leprae (p less than 0.05 to les...

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...

BCC: basal cell carcinoma ENL: erythema nodosum leprosum LL: lepromatous leprosy MS: multiple sclerosis INTRODUCTION Leprosy, also known as Hansen disease, is a chronic bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. M. leprae has low pathogenicity and virulence, developing over many months to even decades, and has the potential to cause extensive damage to the skin and peripheral nervous sys...

Leprosy is a chronic disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Its course is complicated by acute onset of inflammatory reactions which can occur before, during and after treatment of the disease. The reactions are classified as Type 1 reaction or reversal reaction and Type 2 reaction or erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL). Reversal reaction is a Type IV delayed type hypersensitivity reaction while e...

An investigation of skin lymphatics in leprosy has been undertaken. Examination of 62 skin biopsies from 31 patients with various classifications of leprosy has revealed dilated initial lymphatics within granulomas of lepromatous leprosy, but no significant abnormalities in non-lepromatous disease or in non-granulomatous skin. Colloidal carbon injected intra-lesionally failed to appear within g...

One of the characteristic features of the neuropathy of lepromatous leprosy is stated to be the preservation of the commonly elicited deep tendon reflexes (9). This suggests the integrity of the reflex arc related to the large proximal limb muscles. Interest in muscle pathology in leprosy has recently been revi ved following experimental (II) and human (8) evidence of parasitization of striated...

Leprosy skin lesions are described as hypochromic or erythematous macules, pale erythematous or reddish-brown plaques, papules, nodules, and diffuse cutaneous infiltration, depending on the clinical form of the disease. They may be accompanied by hypo or anesthesia, alopecia, and hypo or anhidrosis. Verrucous lesions are now quite uncommon in leprosy. The literature is sparse, with only 25 repo...