Goto Masamichi, Kitajima Shinichi, Nomoto Mitsuharu, Taki Chiaki, Yonezawa Suguru, Imaizumi Masaomi
Department of Pathology, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima 890-8520, Japan.
Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis. 2003 Jun;71(2):106-12. doi: 10.1489/1544-581X(2003)071<0106:CTPHAG>2.0.CO;2.
Leprosy patients lack specific cellular immunity against Mycobacterium leprae, but other immunological functions are thought to be preserved. However, in a leprosy sanatorium in South Japan between 1982 and 2000, we found that the average age at death of cured lepromatous leprosy patients was about 5 yrs younger than that of cured tuberculoid patients; [male/lepromatous, 76.0 +/- 10.0 yrs old vs. male/tuberculoid, 79.7 +/- 9.4 yrs old, p = 0.026], and [female/lepromatous, 78.0 +/- 10.5 vs. female/tuberculoid, 85.3 +/- 9.8, p = 0.0001]. This trend was also observed in autopsy records of two other leprosy sanatoria in Japan. In a prospective study based on their age in 1982, among females in the age group between 60 and 69, lepromatous patients (75.3 +/- 6.0 yrs) died earlier than tuberculoid patients (81.0 +/- 5.1 yrs) (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that lepromatous patients have higher risk of death even in a post-chemotherapy era.
