摘要：Because of the wide range of concentrations of Mycobacterium leprae in existing lepromins the authors studied methods of producing a standardizable lepromin containing 160 million bacilli/ml. The effects of using different dilutions of lepromin on the incidence of false-positive reactions were also studied. Progress reported includes a convenient method for preparing large batches of non-sedimenting lepromin, which is directly suitable for microscopic counting of Myco. leprae cells; and a validation of current methods for microscopic enumeration of Myco. leprae. Skin tests with diluted lepromins have demonstrated that dilutions up to 1:16 increase progressively the ability to distinguish between lepromatous and tuberculoid leprosy. This work has provided further evidence that 20 million bacilli/ml (a 1:8 dilution of the initial lepromin) should produce adequate Mitsuda reactions in general populations, provided that 3-mm reactions are taken as the criterion for 1+ positivity. The net effect of these findings is equivalent to expanding the world supply of lepromin by 8 times. Recommendations for further research are proposed. 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 (919K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 703 704 705 706 707 708 709
