title: Clinico-histopathological findings of Buruli ulcer.
abstract: Here, we report the clinico-pathological findings of Buruli ulcer. The patients were 2 females, 9 and 23 years of age and one male, 47 years of age from the Ashanti Country of Ghana. Clinically, cutaneous lesions were classified as nodular, ulcero-nodular and ulcerative. Histopathologically, lesions involved cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue, which showed lympho-epithelioid cell proliferation and panniculitis with characteristic fat necrotic changes. Vascular inflammation, with the nerve tissue involvement, are prominent features on the chronological spectrum of the 3 cases. In all but the early case, Mycobacterium ulcerans could be visualized from the mid dermal area to the subcutis by Fite-Faraco and Harada stain. The ulcerated lesions were also immunoreactive to phenolic glycolipid-1 (PGL-1). These findings suggest Mycobacterium ulcerans infection with lesions of different ages. Further, we also show the need to identify distinct characteristics for differential diagnosis with lesions caused by other mycobacteria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mwanatambwe
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukunishi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yajima
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asiedu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Etuafel
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Asano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous; D019911:Mycobacterium ulcerans / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012883:Skin Ulcer / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*