Leprosy with ANA positive mistaken for connective tissue disease

Abstract

Leprosy is associated with the occurrence of various skin lesions such as macules, papules, plaques, nodules, and even diffused infiltration, depending on the patient's immune response. Its clinical presentation is often different from the usual pattern, leading to confusion in diagnosis. We present a case of leprosy with ANA positive that was mistaken for connective tissue disease. In this case, we want to tell that doctors should not only depend on laboratory index for diagnosis, the misdiagnosis may lead to delaying illness and aggravating illness.

Atypical cinical manifestation of leprosy in Indonesian male adolescent: a case report

“…9 We want to emphasize that a positive ANA result is common in people with leprosy, which may confuse the leprosy diagnosis, so it needs to be interpreted carefully. 10,11 The final diagnosis for our patient was multibacillary leprosy, borderline leprosy, with erythema nodusum leprosum.…”

Autoanticorpos na hanseníase: implicações em diagnóstico e manifestações clínicas. Uma revisão integrativa

“…O fato de pacientes com hanseníase apresentarem tais sintomas, e além disso, positividade para autoanticorpos, tornou-se um sinal de alerta para reumatologistas com um grande potencial para erros de diagnóstico. Como foi apresentado em todos os artigos de relato de caso clínico selecionados neste revisão, é de extrema importância para o reumatologista a pesquisa por um diagnóstico diferencial entre doenças reumáticas e hanseníase (CHAO G et al, 2013;ZHANG G et al, 2015;LOPES VAP et al, 2015).…”

Multibacillary leprosy mimicking systemic lupus erythematosus: case report and literature review

“…Confusion in diagnosis with rheumatologic conditions has been reported previously. 7,10,[17][18][19][20][21] It is not uncommon that leprosy can be mistaken for other skin diseases. Like leprosy, skin manifestations in SLE can be heterogeneous.…”

“…It has long been known that leprosy is associated with the presence of auto-antibodies, [3][4][5] and its clinical features are similar to those of connective tissue disorders. 6,7 The multisystemic nature of HD may also mimic systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Unfortunately, because of these similarities, physicians sometimes fail to recognize that leprosy may occur with rheumatic manifestations (RM), and the correct diagnosis is frequently delayed.…”