Progressive neuropathy in patients with lepromatous leprosy after multidrug therapy.

Background: The lepromatous pole is a stigmatising prototype for patients with leprosy. Generally, these patients have little or no symptoms of peripheral nerve involvement at the time of their diagnosis. However, signs of advanced peripheral neuropathy would be visible during the initial neurological evaluation and could worsen during and after multidrug therapy (MDT).

Corticosteroid therapy in borderline tuberculoid leprosy patients co-infected with HIV undergoing reversal reaction: a clinical study.

Background: Mycobacterium leprae and HIV cause infectious diseases of great concern for the public health care sector worldwide. Both are especially worrisome diseases when patients become co-infected and exhibit the expected clinical exuberance. The objective of this study was to evaluate episodes of reversal reaction (RR) and the effect of the use of corticosteroids on the treatment of borderline tuberculoid leprosy patients co-infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Histopathological examination of nerve samples from pure neural leprosy patients: obtaining maximum information to improve diagnostic efficiency.

Nerve biopsy examination is an important auxiliary procedure for diagnosing pure neural leprosy (PNL). When acid-fast bacilli (AFB) are not detected in the nerve sample, the value of other nonspecific histological alterations should be considered along with pertinent clinical, electroneuromyographical and laboratory data (the detection of Mycobacterium leprae DNA with polymerase chain reaction and the detection of serum anti-phenolic glycolipid 1 antibodies) to support a possible or probable PNL diagnosis. Three hundred forty nerve samples [144 from PNL patients and 196 from patients with non-leprosy peripheral neuropathies (NLN)] were examined.