Leprosy Relapse: A Retrospective Study on Epidemiologic, Clinical, and Therapeutic Aspects at a Brazilian Referral Center.
Int J Infect Dis
; 118: 44-51, 2022 May.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1838840
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
We aimed to characterize the profile of patients diagnosed with leprosy relapse and understand the influence of different multidrug therapy (MDT) treatments and initial disease presentation.METHODS:
This retrospective study included patients diagnosed with leprosy relapse at a referral center in Brazil from 2013 to 2018. We analyzed their clinico-epidemiologic characteristics, laboratory data, and bacilloscopic tests. Survival analysis was used to determine the time elapsed until relapse according to the previous treatment and clinical forms of the disease.RESULTS:
A total of 126 cases of relapse were analyzed, which comprised 11.89% (126/1059) of the cases. The median time elapsed until a relapse was 10 years, and most patients had previously undergone 12 doses of MDT (40.48%; 51/126). Undergoing 24 doses of MDT was associated with a better prognosis regarding relapse over time compared with 6 or 12 doses of MDT therapy. Most cases of relapse were classified as multibacillary (96.03%; 121/126).CONCLUSION:
The incidence of relapse was greater than observed in other studies. The high percentage of multibacillary patients who had negative bacillary indices demonstrated that the bacillary index cannot be considered to be an essential criterion for relapse, especially concerning making an early diagnosis.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Leprostatic Agents
/
Leprosy
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
South America
/
Brazil
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.ijid.2022.01.009
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