Leprosy in transplant recipients: report of a case after liver transplantation and review of the literature.

Leprosy still is an important public health problem in several parts of the world including Brazil. Unlike the diseases caused by other mycobacteria, the incidence and clinical presentation of leprosy seems little affected in immunosuppressed patients. We report the first case, to our knowledge, of a liver transplant patient who developed multi-bacillary leprosy. The patient presented with papules and infiltrated plaques with loss of sensation suggestive of leprosy 3.5 years after living-related liver transplantation for autoimmune hepatitis. A skin biopsy showing non-caseating macrophagic granulomas, neuritis, and intact acid-fast bacilli on Fite-Faraco stain, confirmed the diagnosis of borderline lepromatous leprosy. The donor of the liver did not show any evidence of leprosy. During follow-up, the patient presented 2 episodes of upgrading leprosy type I reactions, 1 mild before leprosy treatment, and 1 moderate 3 months after receiving standard multi-drug treatment (rifampicin, clofazimine, and dapsone). These reactions were accompanied by increase in liver function tests, especially of canalicular enzymes. This reaction occurred despite the patient's triple immunosuppression regimen. The moderate reaction was successfully treated with further immunosuppression (prednisone, 0.5 mg/kg). Currently, the patient is asymptomatic, off leprosy medication, with routine liver transplant follow-up. The dilemmas in diagnosis and management of such a case are discussed and the literature on leprosy in transplant recipients is reviewed.

Two patients coinfected with Mycobacterium leprae and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and naive for antiretroviral therapy who exhibited type 1 leprosy reactions mimicking the immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.

Two case reports of patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection who developed leprosy are presented. Both developed type 1 leprosy reactions in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. Reactions have been described for a number of HIV-1- and Mycobacterium leprae-coinfected patients and have been considered to be part of an immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) since the reactions were usually linked to the administration of highly active antiretroviral therapy. The reports of our two patients suggest that the type 1 reactions in patients with leprosy and HIV may not always be an IRIS manifestation but may be akin to the classical reactional state described for the natural course of leprosy infection, which occurs in leprosy patients due to the fluctuations of the antimycobacterial immune response, whether they are coinfected with HIV or not.

[Histopathologic findings for the research of acid-fast bacilli in erythema nodosum]. / Características histopatológicas necessárias para a pesquisa de bacilos álcool-ácido resistentes no eritema nodoso.

It was possible to prove, by means of retrospective histopathological studies of 51 glass slides of common erythema nodosum (EN) and 39 glass slides of erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL), that the histopathological features of the two groups differed in several ways. It was found that the most prominent divergent findings between these two diseases was the presence of a lepromatous granulomatous infiltrate in the ENL; the predominant location of the inflammatory infiltrate was derma-hypodermal in ENL and hypodermal in common EN; there was a preferential septa attack in common EN and lobular in ENL; foreign giant cells occurred only in common EN; the lymphocyte cell infiltration in common EN and of neutrophils in ENL and the presence of inflammatory infiltrate around nerves in ENL. Our study has proved that the search for M. leprae does not have to be made in all cases of EN as there are histological differences in the routine histopathological exam between common EN and ENL that can alert to the real need for this procedure. This search must be performed when during the routine histopathological exam of sections stained by hematoxilin-eosin the ENL histopathological characteristics delineated herein are observed.