Atopic Dermatitis: a Short Summary
- Leprosy (Hansen’s disease) is an often ignored skin disease and this infectious disease can sometimes affect the nervous system. Non-specific nail changes can be found in Leprosy.
- The authors sought to study nail changes in leprosy:
- In this study cases of Hansen’s were collected from August 2011 to April 2012 (exclusion congenital nail deformities, fungal nail infections, hair conditions, taking other medications than muli-drug therapy (MDT)). 185 cases were collected.
- Nail changes were found in 88.1% of leprosy patients:
- 75.7% of paucibacillary patients (PB)
- 91.2% of multibacillary patients (MB)
- 29 types of nail changes were found in MB
- 21 types of nail changes were found in PB
- Patients with nerve involvement were 3.3 times more likely to have nail changes.
Conclusion: nail changes appear to be common in Hansen’s disease, and even more so when nerve involvement is present.
Contributors
Dr Christophe Hsu – dermatologist. Geneva, Switzerland
Source of information: Truong DL et al. Nail changes in leprosy patients: clinical study. 2014 (4) – 21st Regional Conference of Dermatology; Danang (Vietnam)
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