@article{9456,
  keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Antibodies, Bacterial, Child, Child, Preschool, Family, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Lepromin, leprosy, Leprosy, lepromatous, Leprosy, Tuberculoid, Male, Mexico, Middle Aged, Mycobacterium leprae, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors},
  author = {Amezcua M E and Escobar-Gutiérrez A and Barba-Rubio J and Cázares J V and Mayén E and Chávez-Núñez M and Peña R C and Rodríguez R and Pastén S},
  title = {Prospective immunological follow-up in household contacts of Mexican leprosy patients.},
  abstract = {<p>A 6-year prospective study of 79 household contacts of leprosy cases was made in order to correlate the development of the disease with their specific T-cell immunity, measured by the Mitsuda test, and levels of anti-Mycobacterium leprae antibodies determined in three consecutive observations with the FLA-ABS test. Overall in the contacts, 71.7% were Mitsuda positive and 93.6% showed seropositivity, without regard to their age, sex, or leprosy type of their index case. Households were divided into lower-risk and higher-risk groups according to either the paucibacillary or multibacillary character of their index case. The lower-risk group consisted of 19 contacts of 2 tuberculoid (TT) and 5 indeterminate cases. The higher-risk group was made up of 60 household contacts of 18 active lepromatous (LL) cases. All but two contacts in the former group had a positive Mitsuda reaction; the most common antibody titer was 1:160, with a tendency to stabilize or decrease over time. In the two Mitsuda-negative contacts, increased antibody levels were observed. In the higher-risk group, 61.6% were Mitsuda positive and showed a humoral profile similar to those Mitsuda positive in the lower-risk group. In most of the Mitsuda-negative LL contacts, the antibody levels remained constant or progressively increased, suggesting a high probability of active subclinical infection. This assumption was partially supported by the finding of a new borderline lepromatous (BL) leprosy case in the Mitsuda-negative LL contact group. Nevertheless, the contribution of the close and extensive contact with a multibacilliferous case as a risk factor was difficult to evaluate because of the small size of the sample studied.</p>
},
  year = {1990},
  journal = {International journal of leprosy and other mycobacterial diseases : official organ of the International Leprosy Association},
  volume = {58},
  pages = {651-9},
  month = {1990 Dec},
  issn = {0148-916X},
  url = {http://ila.ilsl.br/pdfs/v58n4a02.pdf},
  language = {eng},
}