Mycobacterial flora of the skin in leprosy.
Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis
; 59(4): 569-75, 1991 Dec.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-1802939
ABSTRACT
The presence of mycobacteria on the skin of healthy people and in leprosy lesions has been documented previously. The present study observed the mycobacterial flora on the hands (by the hand-washing method) and fingers (by the inoculated culture medium using scraped material obtained during the preparation of slit-skin smears) in 89 untreated leprosy patients. We also evaluated the slit-skin smears from fingers for the diagnosis of leprosy. In 16 patients (17.9%) mycobacteria were cultured from scrapings and hand washings. The frequency of isolates from lepromatous (LL) leprosy cases (52.9%) was significantly higher than from tuberculoid (TT) leprosy cases (5.2%). It was observed that Mycobacterium avium and M. scrofulaceum were the only opportunistic mycobacteria isolated from multibacillary patients, and two hypotheses are discussed to explain these findings. The slit-skin smears from fingers were as satisfactory as smears from other sites for the diagnosis of leprosy, but they were less satisfactory for estimating the morphological index.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Piel
/
Lepra
/
Mycobacterium
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis
Año:
1991
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Brasil