The density and distribution of mast cells was assessed in skin biopsies of 118 untreated leprosy cases and 20 healthy individuals taken as controls. Mast cells were present in only small numbers in the skin biopsies of healthy individuals. Significantly higher mast cell counts were obtained in the skin lesions of indeterminate leprosy (P < 0.01). The mast cell count in the tuberculoid group wa...

Leprosy is a chronic infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae, GHA. Hansen first identified the organism in 1873, so called Hansen disease. Mycobacterium leprae is a bacillus that presents a peculiar tropism for the skin and peripheral nerves. The upper airway has a great importance as a route of M. Leprae infection. The clinical spectrum of leprosy ranges from the tuberculoid form (TT) to the ...

The two polar clinical forms of leprosy, termed tuberculoid and lepromatous, have polarized cellular immune responses with complex immunological distinctions. predominance DCs in leprosy has been reported, while the lepromatous pattern illness is associated weak activation local populations DCs. TiO2 nanoparticles previously shown to induce maturation these cells, leading an inflammatory respon...

Leprosy is a granulomatous disease that mainly affects the skin and peripheral nerves. It is caused by infection with mycobacterium leprae or mycobacterium lepromatosus. In most instances, diagnosis of leprosy can easily be made based on the clinical signs and symptoms. However, when patients present with atypical features, clinical diagnosis can be a challenge. We report a case of a nursing mo...

In 1982, following the recommendations of a WHO study group, multidrug therapy (MDT) was introduced into French Polynesia to treat all patients suffering from active leprosy, and--only on request--those still on dapsone monotherapy. After 5 years, a clear-cut decrease of prevalence and mean annual detection rates for leprosy (except for detection rates among children aged less than 15 years, ma...

For over a century, it has been widely accepted that leprosy did not exist in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. This proposition was based on a combination of historical, paleopathological, and representational studies. Further support came from molecular studies in 2005 and 2009 that four Mycobacterium leprae single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and then 16 SNP subtypes correlate...

Chromatographic analysis, coupled to mass spectrometry with a high-resolution mass spectrometer, of materials isolated from skin lesions of patients with lepromatous leprosy allows the recognition of characteristic mycobacterial products, mycolic acids. This finding indicates that the "noncultivable" bacteria responsible for leprosy are mycobacteria.

Aplastic anaemia associated with multidrug therapy (dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine) in a patient with lepromatous leprosy ISABELA M. B. GOULART, ANA CLÁUDIA S. REIS, TATIANA M. N. DE REZENDE, AÉRCIO S. BORGES, MARCELO S. FERREIRA & SÉRGIO A. NISHIOKA State Reference Center for Sanitary Dermatology and Leprosy, Clinical Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Minas ...

Leprosy is characterised by a chronic granulomatous inflammation of the skin and peripheral nerves. Dissemination of the lepra bacilli may cause involvement of other tissues as well. We describe an unusual case of the granulomatous involvement of the nipple-areola complex in a 35-year-old male consequent to borderline-lepromatous leprosy.

Giant reactions to the tuberculin skin test are extremely rare and have been previously reported almost exclusively in patients with lepromatous leprosy. We herein report a giant tuberculin reaction associated with the homeopathic drug Tuberculinum in a patient with no evidence of active tuberculosis or leprosy.