Clinical Characteristics of New Leprosy Patients for 15 Years (1992~2006) in Daegu / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The prevalence and number of new cases of leprosy have recently markedly decreased in Korea. Therefore, the concerns about leprosy have also gradually decreased. For this reason, making the diagnosis of leprosy is not as easy as it was in the past, and it is more difficult to find new cases of leprosy. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the epidemiologic and clinical features of recently diagnosed cases of leprosy in Daegu city, Korea. METHODS: Fifteen patients were diagnosed with leprosy according to the clinical features, histopathologic findings and bacteriologic examinations at Yeungnam University Hospital from 1992 to 2006. The epidemiological and clinical features according to age, gender, the place of residence, the duration of disease, the location of lesions, the cutaneous findings and the type of disease were evaluated retrospectively using the patients' medical records. The patients enrolled in this study were divided by the Madrid classification the lepromatous type, the tuberculoid type and the intermediate or borderline group. RESULTS: Fifteen patients were diagnosed with leprosy during the past 15 years. The ratio of males to females was 1.51. Most of the patients (66.6%) were aged in their 40's and 60's. This shows that the rate of patients 40 years or older is on the increase. The male patients were younger than the female patients. The male patients were in their 20's and 40's, whereas the female patients' ages ranged from their 50's to 80's. The skin lesions showed various features and six (40%) of the 15 patients had sensory change. Eleven (73.3%) of the 15 patients were in the borderline group, followed by 3 patients with the tuberculoid type (20%) and 1 patient with the lepromatous type (6.7%). CONCLUSION: New leprosy patients have been persistently found and the findings of this study suggest that dermatologists play an important role in diagnosing and treating leprosy and they have to pay attention to diagnose new cases of leprosy.