title: Mycobacterial flora of the skin in leprosy.
abstract: The presence of mycobacteria on the skin of healthy people and in leprosy lesions has been documented previously. The present study observed the mycobacterial flora on the hands (by the hand-washing method) and fingers (by the inoculated culture medium using scraped material obtained during the preparation of slit-skin smears) in 89 untreated leprosy patients. We also evaluated the slit-skin smears from fingers for the diagnosis of leprosy. In 16 patients (17.9%) mycobacteria were cultured from scrapings and hand washings. The frequency of isolates from lepromatous (LL) leprosy cases (52.9%) was significantly higher than from tuberculoid (TT) leprosy cases (5.2%). It was observed that Mycobacterium avium and M. scrofulaceum were the only opportunistic mycobacteria isolated from multibacillary patients, and two hypotheses are discussed to explain these findings. The slit-skin smears from fingers were as satisfactory as smears from other sites for the diagnosis of leprosy, but they were less satisfactory for estimating the morphological index.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mycobacteriology, National Research Institute of Amazônia (INPA), Manaus, Brazil.
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Fandinho
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Salem
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Gontijo-Filho
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Marója
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: David
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007918:Leprosy / Q000382:microbiology*; D015439:Leprosy, Borderline / Q000382:microbiology; D015440:Leprosy, Lepromatous / Q000382:microbiology; D015441:Leprosy, Tuberculoid / Q000382:microbiology; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015269:Mycobacterium avium Complex / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015359:Mycobacterium scrofulaceum / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*