Affiliation:
1. Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Puducherry, India
Abstract
ABSTRACT.
In leprosy, early diagnosis is crucial to prevent transmission and onset of disabilities of the disease. The purpose of this study was to determine usefulness of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in clinically diagnosed cases of leprosy. Thirty-two leprosy cases were included. The real-time PCR was performed using commercial kit targeting Mycobacterium leprae–specific insertion sequence element. The slit skin smear was positive in two (22.2%) borderline tuberculoid (BT) patients, five (83.3%) borderline lepromatous (BL) patients, and seven (50%) lepromatous leprosy (LL). The positivity of quantitative real-time PCR in BT, BL, LL, and pure neuritic leprosy were 77.8%, 83.3%, 100%, and 33.3%, respectively. Using histopathology as the gold standard, sensitivity of quantitative real-time PCR was 93.1%, and specificity was 100%. The DNA load was higher in LL (3,854.29/106 cells), followed by BL (140.37/106 cells), and BT (2.69/106 cells). Because of the high sensitivity and specificity of real-time PCR, our study strongly suggests the use of real-time PCR as a diagnostic tool for leprosy.
Publisher
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Subject
Virology,Infectious Diseases,Parasitology
Reference21 articles.
1. Current situation of leprosy in India and its future implications;Rao,2018
2. National Leprosy Eradication Programme Annual Report 2015–2016,2016
3. National Leprosy Eradication Programme Annual Report 2016–2017,2017
4. Evaluation of real-time and conventional PCR targeting complex 85 genes for detection of Mycobacterium leprae DNA in skin biopsy samples from patients diagnosed with leprosy;Martinez,2006
5. Enumeration of Mycobacterium leprae using real-time PCR;Truman,2008