摘要：Studies on lepromin reactivity in indeterminate (I) leprosy have usually been carried out among patients in whom the disease appeared 1 or more years before testing. This may result in misleading findings because a high proportion of patients, probably those showing moderate or strong lepromin reactions, seem to progress to the tuberculoid pole of leprosy in a relatively short time (<1 year), and in many the lesions heal spontaneously. The object of the present study was to determine the frequency and intensity of late lepromin reactions (macroscopic readings) in untreated I patients aged under 21 years who had had the disease for less than 1 year. Of 209 patients tested with lepromin containing 160 × 106 bacilli/ml only a small proportion (≠ 7%) showed a negative or doubtful lepromin reaction, while 61.5% were 2+ and 3+ reactors. These findings indicate that a favourable outcome may be expected in most I cases in the trial area. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (532K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 113 114 115 116
