The diagnostics and treatment of tropical diseasesStitt, E. R. (Edward Rhodes)
Science
The diagnostics and treatment of tropical diseases
Stitt, E. R. (Edward Rhodes)
Tropical medicine
Of the general diseases, which may be confused with leprosy, we have
the circumscribed form of scleroderma. Such spots however are dead
white in color and are not anaesthetic. The prodromal manifestations
with fever and sweatings simulate malaria. Elephantiasis and Madura
foot have been confused with leprosy but the marked tendency to
limitation to the lower extremities and absence of anaesthesia should
differentiate. Probably the most difficult disease to differentiate
from leprosy is syringomyelia. Morvan’s disease is only a form of
syringomyelia in which the neuralgic pains, anaesthesia of the skin
and painless whitlows, with tissue loss, are features. In fact
Zambaco has advanced the idea that Morvan’s disease is leprosy.
In syringomyelia the dissociation of sensation is marked, as
with leprosy. In syringomyelia, however, the upper extremities
are, as a rule, alone affected and the muscular atrophy is more
of the scapulohumeral type, with involvement of trunk muscles
causing scoliosis, than of the thenar and hypothenar eminences, so
that while the fingers may be more contracted and rigid than in
leprosy we do not get the main-en-griffe. The anaesthetic areas
of syringomyelia continue to sweat, and we may also get spastic
symptoms and speech defects in syringomyelia.
Raynaud’s disease has also been confused with leprosy.
Of the skin diseases the most important confusing lesions are
the cutaneous manifestations of tuberculosis and syphilis. In
lupus the tubercles are very much smaller, show the apple jelly
appearance, the lesion spreads peripherally, is rather purplish and
is not anaesthetic. Syphilitic ulcerations are more punched out,
do not affect the same sites and respond to syphilitic treatment
immediately. You do not find nerve enlargements in syphilis.
There is great lack of agreement as to the frequency of the
Wassermann reaction in leprosy, some reporting a positive test
as common in nodular leprosy while others have reported negative
findings where there was not ground for suspecting syphilis. Nerve
leprosy does not often give a positive test.
Fletcher obtained 22% positives in 100 cases of leprosy—28% in
nodular and 17% in nerve cases. One-third of the cases gave a
history of syphilis.
Sutherland and Mitra obtained 17 positive Wassermann reactions
in 34 nodular cases, 16 positives in 52 anaesthetic cases and 8
positives in 14 cases of mixed leprosy. The sera of 12 children of
leprous parents were negative.
The luetin reaction is negative in leprosy.
Mycosis fungoides has not the characteristic location about the
face and itches markedly and does not show anaesthesia.
Vitiligo shows an abrupt margin and is not anaesthetic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account