Effect of x-ray irradiation on excised earlobe specimens from cases of lepromatous leprosy.

A certain amount of work has been done on the effect of x-rays in lepromatOus leprosy. As early as 1901 Sequeira used x-rays in leprosy, and this was reported for the first time by Bellot (1) in 1904. Heiser in the Philippines (2), and Matthews in India (5), favored the use of x-rays for treatment of lepromatous leprosy. More recently, Kirwan (3) advocated the use of Grenz rays for the treatment of leprous lesions in the eyes. All these workers used very high doses of the radiations. They saw improvement of the lesions, but there was neither a permanent cure nor any change in the bacteriological picture. This has been especially worked out by Lutterback et al. (4) quite recently. On the other hand, Rogers and Muir (7) state that x-rays have little curative effect in leprosy, and may produce blisters and ulcerations in nerve' cases. In my work on the differentiation of human and rat leprosy bacilli (6) I clearly found that x-rays bring about definite destructive changes in Mycobacterium leprae. The fundamental difference between my work and' that of others has been the duration and dose of irradiation. I gave small doses, 63r to 84r, over periods of 45 to 60 minutes, while others irradiated with very high doses for only a few seconds. In the present work an attempt was made to find out the effect of xrays with prolonged irradiations on the tissues and bacilli in lesions of. lepromatous leprosy that had been removed from the patient.