BONE ISLAND AND LEPROSY

Objective. To determine the incidence of bone islands in leprosy patie nts. Design. X-rays of feet and hands of patients with Hansen's diseas e (leprosy) were reviewed retrospectively. A second group of related a ge- and sex-matched patients who did not have Hansen's disease was use d for control purposes. Controls had undergone hand or foot X-rays dur ing diagnosis of other pathologies. The patients with Hansen's disease were compared with the control group, and were also analyzed as subgr oups with different types of leprosy. The results were subjected to st atistical analysis. Patients. Ninety patients with Han sen's disease w ere randomly selected for this study. Patients who had had ulcers on h ands or feet were excluded from the study. Results and conclusions. Bo ne islands were demonstrated in 20 patients with Hansen's disease; no bone islands were observed in the controls. This was statistically sig nificant (P<0.01). Bone islands were only seen in patients with leprom atous leprosy and borderline types but were not demonstrated in patien ts with tuberculoid leprosy. There was also a statistically significan t relationship for a disease duration of 15 years or more. The cause o f this raised incidence of enostosis in leprosy patients is not clear, but there may be a genetic predisposition in patients with leprosy, o r it may be a side effect of leprosy, especially the lepromatous form.