A fatal case of drug-induced multi-organ damage in a patient with Hansen's disease: dapsone syndrome or rifampicin toxicity?

An elderly patient with borderline tuberculoid Hansen's disease (leprosy) developed the diaminodiphenylsulphone syndrome after approximately 8 weeks of multi-drug therapy comprising dapsone and rifampicin. Postmortem histological examination, following autopsy, demonstrated features consistent with drug-induced hepatitis, tubulo-interstitial nephritis and myocarditis. Although these could have been engendered by dapsone toxicity, it was thought that a concommitant adverse reaction to rifampicin, which is known to be hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic and possibly capable of predisposing to the dapsone syndrome, could not be excluded.