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ESSENTIALS OF DIAGNOSIS
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ESSENTIALS OF DIAGNOSIS
Pale, anesthetic macular—or nodular and erythematous—skin lesions.
Superficial nerve thickening with resultant anesthesia.
History of residence in endemic area in childhood.
Acid-fast bacilli in skin lesions or nasal scrapings, or characteristic histologic nerve changes.
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GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
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Leprosy (Hansen disease) is a chronic infectious disease caused by the acid-fast rod M leprae. The mode of transmission probably is respiratory and involves prolonged exposure in childhood. The disease is endemic in tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and the Pacific regions, and rarely seen sporadically in the southern United States.
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A. Symptoms and Signs
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The onset is insidious. The lesions involve the cooler body tissues: skin, superficial nerves, nose, pharynx, larynx, eyes, and testicles. Skin lesions may occur as pale, anesthetic macular lesions 1–10 cm in diameter; discrete erythematous, infiltrated nodules 1–5 cm in diameter; or diffuse skin infiltration. Neurologic disturbances are caused by nerve infiltration and thickening, with resultant anesthesia, and motor abnormalities. Bilateral ulnar neuropathy is highly suggestive. In untreated cases, disfigurement due to the skin infiltration and nerve involvement may be extreme, leading to trophic ulcers, bone resorption, and loss of digits.
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The disease is divided clinically and by laboratory tests into two distinct types: lepromatous and tuberculoid. The lepromatous type (also referred to as multibacillary leprosy) occurs in persons with defective cellular immunity. The course is progressive, with nodular skin lesions; slow, symmetric nerve involvement; abundant acid-fast bacilli in the skin lesions; and a negative lepromin skin test. In the tuberculoid type (paucibacillary leprosy), cellular immunity is intact and the course is more benign and less progressive, with macular skin lesions, severe asymmetric nerve involvement of sudden onset with few bacilli present in the lesions, and a positive lepromin skin test. Intermediate ("borderline") cases are frequent. Eye involvement (keratitis and iridocyclitis), nasal ulcers, epistaxis, anemia, and lymphadenopathy may occur.
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B. Laboratory Findings
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Laboratory confirmation of leprosy requires the demonstration of acid-fast bacilli in a skin biopsy. Biopsy of skin or of a thickened involved nerve also gives a typical histologic picture. M leprae does not grow in artificial media but does grow in the foot pads of armadillos.
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DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS
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The skin lesions of leprosy often resemble those of SLE, sarcoidosis, syphilis, erythema nodosum, erythema multiforme, cutaneous tuberculosis, and vitiligo.
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Kidney failure and hepatomegaly from secondary amyloidosis may occur with long-standing disease.
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Combination therapy is recommended for treatment of all types of leprosy. Single-drug treatment is accompanied by emergence of resistance, and primary resistance to dapsone also occurs. For borderline and lepromatous cases (ie, multibacillary disease), the World Health Organization ...