01719nas a2200265   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653001000055653002100065653001600086653001100102653001100113653002500124653000900149653001600158100001200174700001700186700001400203245009600217300001000313490000700323050001500330520109400345022001401439       1988                            d  c1988 Oct10aAdult10aCholesterol, HDL10aColorimetry10aFemale10aHumans10aLeprosy, lepromatous10aMale10aMiddle Aged1 aKumar N1 aSaraswat P K1 aShanker A00aEstimation of high density lipoprotein cholesterol in the diagnosis of lepromatous leprosy.  a600-30 v60  aKUMAR 19883 a<p>A high incidence of increased plasma level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) has been reported in cases of lepromatous leprosy. HDL-C levels were estimated in 96 (50 under treatment and 46 untreated) lepromatous leprosy patients and 84 randomly selected matched control patients suffering from other skin diseases attending skin out-patients department. HDL-C estimations were performed for the diagnosis of lepromatous leprosy in patients aged below 60 years, taking plasma HDL-C levels as 28-71 mg./dl. in men and 34-91 mg./dl. in women, as range of normal values. The study revealed that HDL-C levels in lepromatous leprosy group were raised and significantly different when compared with control group (t = 35.1668 and P less than 0.001). The sensitivity of the test was very high, 97.9 per cent (94/96), but specificity was low 80.95 per cent (68/84). False positive and false negative results were 19.04 per cent (16/84) and 2.08 per cent (2/96) respectively. It is opined that a negative test will be mainly useful in excluding diagnosis of lepromatous leprosy.</p>  a0254-9395