C-reative proteins in the sera of patients with leprosy

ABSTRACT

The C-reactive protein test (CRP) performed by a capillary precipitation method was applied to the sera of 380 leprosy patient, among which 335 were of the lepromatous and 45 of the tuberculoid type. A total of 2,140 tests were performed over a period of two years. The numbers of determinations for each patient ranged between i and 73. Serial CRP tests in 45 tuberculoid cases showed 9 cases (20%) to be consistently positive, 17 cases (37.8%) inconsistently positive, and 19 cases (42.2%) consistently negative. Of the 55 lepromatous cases that were bacteriologically negative ("arrested") at the end of the period, 28 (50.9%) were consistently negative, 17 (30.9%) were inconsistently positive, and 10 (18.1%) were consistently positive. Of the 280 bacteriologically positive lepromatous cases, 96 (34.2%) were consistently negative, 121 (43.2%)inconsistently positive, and 63 (22.5%) consistently positive.