TY - JOUR
KW - Adolescent
KW - Adult
KW - Biomarkers
KW - Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
KW - Erythema Nodosum
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - leprosy
KW - Leprosy, Borderline
KW - Leprosy, lepromatous
KW - Male
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Nitric Oxide
KW - Prednisolone
KW - Prognosis
KW - Sensitivity and Specificity
KW - Statistics, Nonparametric
KW - Treatment Outcome
AU - Schön T
AU - Leekassa R
AU - Gebre N
AU - Sundqvist T
AU - Bizuneh E
AU - Britton S
AB - <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>
BT - Leprosy review
C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11105495?dopt=Abstract
CN - Infolep Library - available
DA - 2000 Sep
DO - 10.5935/0305-7518.20000040
IS - 3
J2 - Lepr Rev
LA - eng
N2 - <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>
PY - 2000
SP - 355
EP - 62
T2 - Leprosy review
TI - High dose prednisolone treatment of leprosy patients undergoing reactions is associated with a rapid decrease in urinary nitric oxide metabolites and clinical improvement.
UR - http://leprev.ilsl.br/pdfs/2000/v71n3/pdf/v71n3a16.pdf
VL - 71
SN - 0305-7518
ER -