Pregnancy and leprosy: a comprehensive literature review

The interaction between pregnancy, leprosy and leprosy reactions was examined in a systematic literature review. Several retrospective case series and one retrospective cohort study but only one prospective cohort study were identified in the English literature. Type 1 (reversal) reactions were particularly likely to occur during the post partum. This temporal association was also present for both overt and silent neuritis. Type 2 (erythema nodosum leprosum) reactions occur throughout pregnancy and during lactation, and may be severe and recurrent. No prospective, controlled studies were found that documented the complications of pregnancy in women treated with multidrug therapy regimens. Our study highlights the need for such studies, with appropriate controls, on women throughout pregnancy and lactation so that risk factors for reaction and neuritis during pregnancy can be identified and quantified.

Estudo da placenta na hanseníase / Study of placenta in leprosy

Foram estudadas 15 placentas procedentes de três grupos de grávidas. Sete eram de hansenianas, acompanhadas durante toda a gestação e o parto realizou-se no Hospital Universitário Antonio Pedro...O estudo imunohistoquímico do afluxo inflamatório, nas vilosites da Doença de Hansen, foi semelhante ao detectado nas de outras etiologias. O achado do agente etiológico assume papel relevante, a vasculite foi caracterizada por endotélio huperplasiado, edema endotelial, sub endotelial, da camada média média e adventícia. As alterações foram generalizadas e semelhantes, no setor arterial e venoso, houve predomínio do achado da Mycobacterium leprae nas formas bacilíferas e a visualização das bactérias foi facilitada pela técnica utilizada, os níveis de anticorpos IgM anti PGL1 foram elevados em gestantes bacilíferas. Não houve correlação entre os níveis de anticorpos maternos e dos seus respectivos recém-nascidos.

[Pathomorphologic changes in the internal organs of intact and Mycobacterium leprae-infected 9-banded armadillos]. / Patomorfologicheskie izmeneniia vnutrennikh organov intaktnykh i zarazhennykh mikobakteriiami lepry deviatipoiasnykh bronenostsev.

The internal organs of nine-banded armadillos were examined histologically before and after inoculation of the animals with M. leprae. 3--4 months after the inoculation two animals developed tuberculoid structures in the lungs, liver and skin. A conclusion is made that experimental leprosy infection in nine-banded armadillos may run its course not only in the lepromatous but also in the tuberculoid form of the disease.

A review of arrested cases

1.At the Chandkhuri Leprosy Hospital Baitalpur, 324 cases were declared disease arrested during the years 1928-37 128 of these were children and they had been periodically re-examined 13 of these childern relapsed the relapse-rate being 10 per cent. 2. Of the cases declared arrested from time 202 were acailable for re-examination this year. Out of these 22 had relapsed giving a ralapse-rate of 10.89 per cent. The relapse-rate in the neural cases was 8.5 per cent while that in the lepromatous cases was 18.5 per cent. In this series there was practically no realpse in cases arrested with slight or no deformity while the reper centlapse-rate in cases arrested with marked deformity was 20 per cent. Chances of relapse beyond no years arrest appear to be rare I am grateful to Dr. E. W. Whitcomb, M. D., our Medical Super intendente, for valuable suggestions and for permission to publish this paper