Wednesday, June 22, 2011

What is the value of PCR in the diagnosis of leprosy?

Leprosy Mailing List – April 9th, 2011
Ref:    What is the value of PCR in the diagnosis of leprosy?
From:  Antoine Mahé, Colmar, France


Dear Dr Noto,
I repeatedly wonder about the value of PCR (on skin lesions, nasal mucus,...) in order to diagnosis difficult cases of leprosy (i.e., mainly PB cases).  I did not find any convincing data about the use of this kind of test.
Would someone from the Leprosy mailing list give me definitive focus about this topic; e.g., sensitivity and specificity of PCR in various variants of leprosy?
Kind regards,
 
Dr Antoine Mahé
Dermatologie
Hôpital Pasteur
39, avenue de la Liberté
68024 Colmar Cedex
Secrétariat (+33) 03 89 12 44 65 / 41 58
Fax (+33) 03 89 12 47 69
Portable (+33) 06 31 27 68 71

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