Palomino J C, Falconi E, Marin D, Guerra H
Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad Peruana, Lima.
Indian J Lepr. 1991 Apr-Jun;63(2):203-8.
In the present study we have evaluated the Fluorescein Diacetate/Ethidium Bromide (FDA/EB) staining technique to assess the viability of Mycobacterium leprae obtained from biopsies of leprosy patients under different periods of treatment. Bacillary suspensions were obtained from skin punch biopsies and stained with the FDA/EB solution. The average percentage of green cells seen which were deemed to be viable were: 67.2% of green cells in patients without previous treatment; 45.6% in patients with 1 to 6 months of treatment; 25.9% for patients with 7 to 12 months of treatment and 10.5% in patients with 13 to 24 months of treatment. All the patients studied were on multidrug therapy. The differences obtained in the percentages of green cells in the different groups of patients were statistically significant as determined by the Wilcoxon's test. The decrease in the percentage of green cells observed with increasing periods of treatment suggests that the FDA/EB technique correlates with the actual viability of M. leprae. The application of this technique in the routine procedures performed with Hansen's disease patients could be very useful for monitoring the effectiveness of treatment in leprosy patients.
在本研究中，我们评估了荧光素二乙酸酯/溴化乙锭（FDA/EB）染色技术，以评估从麻风病患者不同治疗阶段的活检组织中获取的麻风分枝杆菌的活力。从皮肤打孔活检组织中获取杆菌悬液，并用FDA/EB溶液进行染色。观察到的被认为具有活力的绿色细胞的平均百分比为：未经治疗的患者中绿色细胞占67.2%；治疗1至6个月的患者中占45.6%；治疗7至12个月的患者中占25.9%；治疗13至24个月的患者中占10.5%。所有研究的患者均接受多药治疗。通过威尔科克森检验确定，不同组患者中绿色细胞百分比的差异具有统计学意义。随着治疗时间的增加，观察到绿色细胞百分比的下降表明FDA/EB技术与麻风分枝杆菌的实际活力相关。在麻风病患者的常规检查程序中应用该技术，可能对监测麻风病患者的治疗效果非常有用。
