@article{2217,
  keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Biomarkers, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Erythema Nodosum, Female, Humans, leprosy, Leprosy, Borderline, Leprosy, lepromatous, Male, Middle Aged, Nitric Oxide, Prednisolone, Prognosis, Sensitivity and Specificity, Statistics, Nonparametric, Treatment Outcome},
  author = {Schön T and Leekassa R and Gebre N and Sundqvist T and Bizuneh E and Britton S},
  title = {High dose prednisolone treatment of leprosy patients undergoing reactions is associated with a rapid decrease in urinary nitric oxide metabolites and clinical improvement.},
  abstract = {<p>Evidence is accumulating that nitric oxide (NO) produced by macrophages has a role in the pathogenesis of reactions in leprosy. We followed the urinary levels of the metabolites of NO [nitrite (NO2-) and nitrate (NO3-)] and the clinical response to prednisolone treatment in leprosy patients (n = 9) admitted to ALERT leprosy hospital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, because of reversal reaction (RR) or erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL). In untreated reactional leprosy patients, the levels of urinary NO metabolites (1645 +/- 454 microM, n = 9, ENL = 4, RR = 5) decreased significantly 2 weeks after high dose prednisolone treatment (1075 +/- 414 microM, P < 0.05), and remained stable 4 (895 +/- 385 microM, P < 0.02) and 6 weeks following treatment initiation (1048 +/- 452 microM, P < 0.02). This decrease was also present when the reactional patients were subdivided according to the type of reaction (ENL, RR) and coincided with a clinical improvement. In patients showing a poor clinical response to steroids, no or minor effects on the urinary NO metabolite levels were observed. We conclude that there is a correlation between the decrease in urinary NO metabolites and a favourable clinical response after high dose prednisolone treatment of reactional leprosy patients.</p>},
  year = {2000},
  journal = {Leprosy review},
  volume = {71},
  pages = {355-62},
  month = {2000 Sep},
  issn = {0305-7518},
  url = {http://leprev.ilsl.br/pdfs/2000/v71n3/pdf/v71n3a16.pdf},
  doi = {10.5935/0305-7518.20000040},
  language = {eng},
}