Micropathological changes in the sub-epidermal zone of normal appearing skin in leprosy

Vol. 52 No. 1 Suppl., 2011
This supplement was not sponsored by Outside Organizations.

ROMANIAN JOURNAL of MORPHOLOGY and EMBRYOLOGY

Rakhi Rastogi, Virendra Budhiraja, C. S. Ramesh Babu, Molly Madan, Arvind Krishna, A. K. Asthana

Leprosy is a chronic inflammatory disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which affects not only the peripheral nerves and skin but also various internal viscera through the hematogenous spread, especially in lepromatous cases. The micropathological changes in epidermis, nerves and skin appendages from lesioned skin reported by various authors but reports of involvement of apparently normal sites are few. We investigated skin biopsy material taken from 130 patients with clinically diagnosed leprosy. Biopsies were taken at least 10 cm away from site of lesion. Hematoxylin and Eosin staining and Harada's modified Allochrome method for acid-fast bacilli were applied for histological investigations. The pattern of leprosy among the patients were indeterminate in 53 cases (40.8%), tuberculoid in 29 cases (22.3%), borderline tuberculoid in 14 cases (10.8%), borderline leprosy in ten cases (7.7%), borderline lepromatous in nine cases (6.9%) and lepromatous leprosy in 15 cases (11.5%). The changes were seen in sub-epidermal zone of normal appearing skin in all type of leprosy, but involvement was greater at the lepromatous end of the spectrum compared to tuberculoid end. Acid-fast bacillus (AFB) was seen in subepidermal zone of normal appearing site. Presence of AFB is significant as far as dissemination and transmission of disease is concerned.

Corresponding author: Rakhi Rastogi, Associate Professor, MD, PhD, e-mail: rakhirastogi1207@gmail.com

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ROMANIAN JOURNAL of MORPHOLOGY and EMBRYOLOGY

Carmen Adina Petcu, V. Surlin, Fl. Bogdan

Introduction: The incidence of carcinoid tumors of the digestive tract increased in the last 30 years. The aim of the study is to find clinical and morphologic correlations in cases with digestive carcinoid tumors. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study on 76 cases with digestive carcinoid tumors divided in five groups according to their location on the segments of the digestive tract. Results: The subgroup of colon carcinoid is analyzed and clinical-morphological correlations are obtained between the demographic data of the patients (age, gender and environment), tumor location, clinical expression and morphologic features. Conclusions: Due to the newly discovered techniques of investigation, the incidence of digestive carcinoid tumors has risen in association with other pathologies for which we make these investigations

Corresponding author: Valeriu Surlin, MD, PhD, e-mail: vsurlin@gmail.com

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