TY - JOUR AU - Lugão HB AU - Nogueira-Barbosa MH AU - Marques W AU - Foss N AU - Cipriani Frade M AB -

BACKGROUND: Neurological involvement occurs throughout the leprosy clinical spectrum and is responsible for the most feared consequences of the disease. Ultrasonography (US) provides objective measurements of nerve thickening and asymmetry. We examined leprosy patients before beginning multi-drug therapy aiming to describe differences in US measurements between classification groups and between patients with and without reactions.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Eleven paucibacillary (PB) and 85 multibacillary (MB) patients underwent nerve US. Twenty-seven patients had leprosy reactions (type 1, type 2 and/or acute neuritis) prior to US. The ulnar (at the cubital tunnel-Ut-and proximal to the tunnel-Upt), median (M) and common fibular (CF) nerves were scanned to measure cross-sectional areas (CSAs) in mm2 and to calculate the asymmetry indexes ΔCSA (absolute difference between right and left CSAs) and ΔUtpt (absolute difference between Upt and Ut CSAs). MB patients showed greater (p<0.05) CSAs than PB at Ut (13.88±11.4/9.53±6.14) and M (10.41±5.4/6.36±0.84). ΔCSAs and ΔUtpt were similar between PB and MB. The CSAs, ΔCSAs and ΔUtpt were similar between PB patients with reactions compared to PB patients without reactions. MB patients with reactions showed significantly greater CSAs (Upt, Ut and M), ΔCSAs (Upt and Ut) and ΔUtpt compared to MB patients without reactions. PB and MB showed similar frequencies of abnormal US measurements. Patients with reactions had higher frequency of nerve thickening and similar frequency of asymmetry to those without reactions.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study to investigate differences in nerve involvement among leprosy classification groups using US before treatment. The magnitude of thickening was greater in MB and in patients with reactions. Asymmetry indexes were greater in patients with reactions and did not significantly differ between PB and MB, demonstrating that asymmetry is a characteristic of leprosy neuropathy regardless of its classification.

BT - PLoS neglected tropical diseases C1 -

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26646143?dopt=Abstract

DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004276 IS - 12 J2 - PLoS Negl Trop Dis LA - eng N2 -

BACKGROUND: Neurological involvement occurs throughout the leprosy clinical spectrum and is responsible for the most feared consequences of the disease. Ultrasonography (US) provides objective measurements of nerve thickening and asymmetry. We examined leprosy patients before beginning multi-drug therapy aiming to describe differences in US measurements between classification groups and between patients with and without reactions.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Eleven paucibacillary (PB) and 85 multibacillary (MB) patients underwent nerve US. Twenty-seven patients had leprosy reactions (type 1, type 2 and/or acute neuritis) prior to US. The ulnar (at the cubital tunnel-Ut-and proximal to the tunnel-Upt), median (M) and common fibular (CF) nerves were scanned to measure cross-sectional areas (CSAs) in mm2 and to calculate the asymmetry indexes ΔCSA (absolute difference between right and left CSAs) and ΔUtpt (absolute difference between Upt and Ut CSAs). MB patients showed greater (p<0.05) CSAs than PB at Ut (13.88±11.4/9.53±6.14) and M (10.41±5.4/6.36±0.84). ΔCSAs and ΔUtpt were similar between PB and MB. The CSAs, ΔCSAs and ΔUtpt were similar between PB patients with reactions compared to PB patients without reactions. MB patients with reactions showed significantly greater CSAs (Upt, Ut and M), ΔCSAs (Upt and Ut) and ΔUtpt compared to MB patients without reactions. PB and MB showed similar frequencies of abnormal US measurements. Patients with reactions had higher frequency of nerve thickening and similar frequency of asymmetry to those without reactions.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study to investigate differences in nerve involvement among leprosy classification groups using US before treatment. The magnitude of thickening was greater in MB and in patients with reactions. Asymmetry indexes were greater in patients with reactions and did not significantly differ between PB and MB, demonstrating that asymmetry is a characteristic of leprosy neuropathy regardless of its classification.

PY - 2015 EP - e0004276 T2 - PLoS neglected tropical diseases TI - Asymmetric Nerve Enlargement: A Characteristic of Leprosy Neuropathy Demonstrated by Ultrasonography. UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4672904/pdf/pntd.0004276.pdf VL - 9 SN - 1935-2735 ER -