The Differential Tuberculin Test in Leprosy

Abstract

The differential tuberculin test has been carried out on a group of leprosy patients using 5 different PPD antigens (S, Y, G, B and F) obtained from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other myco bacterial species. The patterns of sensitization seen in the leprosy patients were found to be different from those of the general po pulation and of tuberculous patients, but no marked differences in the patterns were seen between the patients with leprom atous and those with tuberculoid leprosy.In both groups of patients, there was with all the antigens except PPD-F, a clear-cut group of non-reactors and a group of reactors. Both tuberculoid and lepromatous leprosy patients had, in contrast to tuberculous patients, a significant proportion of non-reactors. It was also found that the patterns of sensitization to antigens obtained from mycobacteria other than Myco. /eprae were not different in the two immunological extremes of leprous disease.

Multiple skin testing in leprosy

“…Somewhat similar studies carried out by Pinto, Arseculeratne & Welianga (1973) in Ceylon failed to demonstrate differences in response between the two immunological extremes of leprosy. However, they used PPD's of five species of mycobacteria, only one of which (M. fortuitum) was a fast growing species.…”

Multiple skin testing of Kenyan schoolchildren with a series of new tuberculins

“…Another is to measure the amount of sensitization of populations to skin test reagents prepared from environmental mycobacteria (Ogunbi, 1969;Edwards et al 1969; Pinto, Arseculeratne, Uragoda & Hemawardene, 20-2 1972). A third is through the study of the reactions of patients with mycobacterial diseases (Pinto, Arseculeratne & Welianga, 1973;Pinto, Arseculeratne, Uragoda & Hemawardene, 1973;Stanford, Revill, Gunthorpe & Grange, 1975;Paul, Stanford & Carswell, 1975), and a fourth is through studies of susceptibility of animals to experimental infections. Most such studies have been limited by the use of bacterial isolation techniques that are inadvertently selective for certain species or by the use of P.P.D.s with specificities too low to be of value.…”