Although the preventive action of dapsone against P. falciparum malaria was known for many years, there was no report about the incidence of P. falciparum malaria in leprosy patients treated with dapsone, especially from areas of Southeast Asia where both leprosy and malaria are endemic. Therefore, two clinic-based malaria surveys were undertaken at a gap of 12 years, comprising 506 lepromatous...

The eyes may become involved in leprosy in three ways-as a complication of involvement of the facial and occasionally the trigeminal nerve(s); by invasion of the eyeball by large numbers of acid-fast bacilli in lepromatous leprosy; and by participation in the generalized allergic reaction, known as the reactive phase. It is curious that the eyeball is rarely, if ever, involved by direct spread ...

A case of borderline-lepromatous leprosy exhibiting alopecia of the scalp along with lepromatous lymphadenitis of suboccipital lymphnode is reported. To our knowledge generalized leprous alopecia of the scalp with lepromatous lymphadenitis of the suboccipital node is a rare occurrence in female Indian patients.

A 49-year-old man with lepromatous leprosy treated with dapsone monotherapy for 12 years (1967 to 1979) reported in the hospital in 2003, with relapsed disease. A slit skin smear showed a bacteriological index of 4+. Biopsies from skin lesions before and after anti-leprosy therapy showed features of lepromatous leprosy. Both biopsies showed unusual features of bacillary clumps in epidermal cell...

Lepromatous leprosy is a multisystem disease that can involve many organ systems, with lymph nodes a common extra-cutaneous site to be affected. Rarely, multibacillary leprosy can be confused with other diseases like lymphomas and connective tissue diseases. Herein we report a patient of lepromatous leprosy with Type II lepra reaction involving lymph nodes who presented with generalised lymphad...

Sixty consecutive patients with leprosy were investigated for renal involvement. Clinically overt renal disease was present in 4 patients; 3 presented with a nephrotic state and one patient with progressive renal failure. Urinalysis showed daily protein loss ranging from 0.4 to 8.9 g in 8 patients and microscopic haematuria in 4 cases. Elevated levels of blood urea and creatinine were seen only...

To investigate the association of leprosy with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, as yet unknown for South Brazil, we assessed hepatitis B virus coinfection in 199 South Brazilian leprosy patients (119 lepromatous, 15 tuberculoid, 30 borderline, 12 undetermined and 23 unspecified) and in 681 matched blood donors by screening for the hepatitis B virus markers HBSAg and anti-HBc, using ELISA. Pos...

5 Mohaghepour N. Gelber RR. Engleman EG. T-cell defect in lepromatous leprosy is reversible in vitro in the absence of exogenous growth factors. J Immunol, 1 987; 138: 570-574. 6 Ottenhoff THM. Immunology of ieprosy: Lessons from and for leprosy. Int J Lepr, 1 994; 62: 1081 2 1 . 7 Gill HK, Godal T . Deficiency o f cell mediated immunity in leprosy. Prog Allergy, 1 986; 37: 377-390. 8 Salgame P...

Multibacillary, lepromatous or borderline leprosy patients may present two types of vasculonecrotic reactions: Lucio phenomenon and that associated with erythema nodosum leprosum. Despite they can be distinguished through clinical and histological characteristics; both are often used as synonyms. It is said that leprosy reaction should be properly classified for therapeutic reasons, since it is...

BACKGROUND Patients with localized tuberculoid and generalized lepromatous leprosy show respectively Th1 and Th2 cytokine profile. Additionally, other patients in both types of leprosy also show a non discriminating Th0 cytokine profile with both interferon-γ and IL-4. The present study investigated the role of Th17 cells which appear to be a distinct subtype of Th subtypes in 19 tuberculoid an...