Leprosy anetoderma lesions

Abstract

A total of three hundred and thirty two patients with leprosy were studied at Arnaldo Pezzutti Cavalcanti Hospital .The results indicated that two hundred and seventy two patients had lepromatous leprosy (LL ), thirty five had tuberculoid leprosy ( TL )and twenty five borderline leprosy (BL ).Further studies were performed with the same group of patients and the results showed that six patients with LL and one with BL had also anetoderma. Morover, five of these seven patients had the same clinical conditions of Schweninger-Buzzi anetoderma (SBA), such as, atrophic, wrinkled and oval or round lesions, with bulge outward skin. The other two showed large, circumscribed, raised, atrophic and round plaques. Also, touching the skin with the finger of these seven patients, one could feel an hernial ring on the periphery of the lesions.The serologic tests of syphilis were negative.The histophatological exam, staining for elastic tissue shows decrease in the amount of elastic fibers with disorganization of them, which appear thin and fragmented in the papilary and reticular dermis. The collagen was fragmented with basophilic degeneration.Electron microscopic examination of lesions reveals a few thin, irregular elastic fibers, with some loss of the amorphous substance, but with relative conservation of the microfibrils. The collagen fibers were preserved.We consider those anetodermas in patients with leprosy as secondary, because the anetoderma appears in association with a identifiable disease, perhaps in people with genetics predisposition.