Effect of dapsone on blood lactic and pyruvic acids in leprosy.

The effect of leprosy and dapsone (DDS) on the basal levels of blood lactic and pyruvic acids has been studied. In untreated tuberculoid and lepromatous leprosy patients both of the acids were found to be significantly raised. The rise in lactic acid was relatively more in tuberculoid patients; whereas pyruvic was relatively more elevated in lepromatous cases. Both the acids showed a tendency to increase with the duration of the disease in lepromatous leprosy. Statistically no significant differences were observed in lactic acid levels between untreated and treated cases of both forms of leprosy, suggesting that DDS was not effective in controlling the conditions responsible for the increased lactic acid. On the other hand, pyruvic acid showed a further increase in cases who were on DDS therapy, particularly in lepromatous cases. This indicated that DDS affects pyruvic acid metabolism. Whether DDS disturbs the normal degradative pathway of pyruvic acid or affects pathways of pyruvic acid production is not clear.