Giardia lamblia: in-vitro sensitivity to some chemotherapeutic agents.

The susceptibility of Giardia lamblia to eight chemotherapeutic agents was studied in vitro. The criteria of viability of the parasite was the ability of the parasite to attach to the coverslip surface in situ, and to multiply in drug free media on subcultures. The giardicidal and 50% inhibitory concentrations of each drug were measured. The activity of metronidazole in vitro was found to be similar to that of mepacrine, whilst that of chloroquine was inferior. The sensitivity of G. lamblia to mepacrine and chloroquine is markedly greater than that reported for Entamoeba histolytica.

Anticardiolipin antibodies in leprosy.

Eighty-four leprosy patients were studied clinically and for IgG and IgM anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies. Following WHO criteria, 41 patients could be classified as multibacillary (MB) and 43 as paucibacillary (PB). Baseline levels of IgG and IgM antibodies were 27 +/- 4.8 GPL and 20 +/- 3.4 MPL per ml respectively. Comparing with these, 60.9% of MB and 39.5% of PB cases showed rise in IgG and IgM anticardiolipin antibodies; 19.5% of MB and 4.6% of PB sera showed rise in only IgG antibodies, while 4.8% of MB and 13.9% of PB cases showed rise only in IgM antibodies. Rise in aCL antibodies had no correlation with cardiovascular involvement, bacteriological index, reactive state and duration or regularity of treatment.

Morphology of cystic structures seen in leprosy biopsy suspensions kept at cooler temperatures.

Cystic structures were seen in good numbers in biopsy suspensions obtained from leprosy patients and kept at cooler temperature. The structures were found arranged in singles, clusters or straight lines. In clusters, small round structures were seen surrounding a large spherical body. The small cystic bodies appeared empty, the medium sized bodies showed fine particles while the large ones showed spherules in and around them. It appears that the seed structure of the cycle emerges from the large spherical bodies.

Evaluation of modified lepro-agglutination as screening test for leprosy.

One hundred thirty-three leprosy sera (83 multibacillary (MB) and 50 paucibacillary (PB) cases) were screened by lepro-agglutination (LA) and M.leprae particle agglutination (MLPA) tests. Larger number of MB sera were positive by LA (86.75%) than by MLPA (45.12%) test. Thirty-seven of the 45 MB sera negative by MLPA test were positive by LA test. The reverse was true in three out of 11 MB sera. PB sera showed positivity of 16% in LA test and 24% in MLPA test. All the 55 sera from normal healthy individuals and 18 VDRL positive sera from syphilis patients were found to be negative by LA test.

Repeated isolation of Dermatophilus-like organism from leprosy material.

An organism having actinomycetoid type of colonies has been grown repeatedly in pure culture from leprosy material using a solid medium. The isolates obtained from different biopsies, skin scrapes and mouse foot-pad harvests were found to be similar to each other in the routine taxonomical tests and had many characters common with Dermotophilus congolensis. Similar growth could be obtained from a strain of M. leprae from armadillo and also from a DOPA-positive mycobacterium isolated previously from the blood of a leprosy patient.

Observations on attempted leprosy cultures in two media.

Suspensions of skin tissue material collected from lepromatous leprosy patients and material from mouse foot-pad harvests were inoculated into two media, viz., a biphasic medium and a minimal basal medium. The cultures were incubated at 37 degrees C and 15 degrees C. Small oval (or round) cells appeared in these cultures around the tenth day along with a few cystic structures; and they increased in number later, reaching the maximum around six-seven weeks. The above cells appeared acid-fast in some cultures and some of them appeared to split into pairs of acid-fast bacilli. The cells were most often seen in the biphasic medium at 37 degrees C. The identity of these structures is not known at this stage.

Application of filter paper method for collection of blood for MLPA test.

The results of MLPA test using serum and filter paper eluate have been compared in this paper. Testing 64 patient samples at 1:32 dilution, 31 were negative by both serum and eluate, 20 were positive by both, six were positive only by serum and one was positive only eluate. In six other cases eluate gave equivocal results while serum result was clearly positive. Some eluates negative at 1:32 dilution gave weak positive agglutination at 1:16 dilution.

Isolation of a DOPA positive rapid growing mycobacterium from blood of a leprosy patient.

A rapid growing acid-fast organism was isolated from the blood of a borderline leprosy patient. The isolate appeared to be close to Mycobacterium cheloni group of organisms but showed globi, cigar shaped bundles and was positive for DOPA-oxidase. Catalase, iron uptake, sodium chloride tolerance, tellurite reduction, Tween 80 hydrolysis and pyridine extraction tests were also positive. The 3-days arylsulphatase test and nitrate reduction test were negative.

Significance of neither green nor red NGR bacilli in FDA-EB staining.

This Study deals with determination of viability by FDA-EB method. It has been observed that some of the bacilli do not take any colour in FDA-EB preparations. These can be called "neither green nor red" (NGR) bacilli. These non-staining bacilli should be taken into account when reporting viability by FDA-EB method.

ELISA & lepromin skin tests in household contacts of leprosy patients.

A total of 438 household contacts of leprosy patients and 228 non-contacts were studied for anti-PGL-I antibodies and cell mediated immune response to Mycobacterium leprae using ELISA and lepromin tests. The contacts showed relatively higher positivity to ELISA (29.4%) and lepromin (70.5%) as compared to non-contacts who showed 9.6 and 57 per cent positivity. In contacts as well as non-contacts the seropositivity was not found to be influenced by age and sex. However, seropositivity was higher (39.7%) in the contacts of patients with multibacillary leprosy as compared to contacts (27.7%) of patients with paucibacillary leprosy.

Observations on nerve tissue infected with M. leprae.

Nerve tissue from leprosy patients showed (i) small linear pinkish translucent crystalloid bodies, (ii) small round structures in relation to filamentous strands, (iii) short pieces of filaments with round spaces within them and (iv) miscellaneous structures like pink granules, brown bodies and dark masses. These structures are being studied for their relationship to leprosy.

Some observations on skin smear examination.

40 slit and scrape smears in a planned study and 35 routine smears picked up from the laboratory were examined. An end-to-end examination of the smears detected additional positives and gave a higher bacterial index than what was reported in the routine. Acid-fast bacilli were found to be distributed in only 1 to 3 per cent of the fields in the smears. The bacilli were found mostly in the centre and in narrow bands between centre and periphery of the smears. Some of the high BI smears were found to contain areas completely free from bacilli.

Sub-clinical infection with Mycobacterium leprae in household contacts of leprosy.

870 household contacts of leprosy patients were examined for sub-clinical infection with M. leprae by smear (skin and nasal), lepromin and FLA-ABS tests. 0.6%, 3.3%, 71.5% and 14.4% of the contacts were found to be positive for skin smear, nasal smear, lepromin and FLA-ABS tests respectively. An analysis of the results revealed that 4% of the lepromin positive contacts and 3.6% of the lepromin negative contacts were positive to both FLA-ABS and skin or nasal smear.