A 59-year-old male patient was admitted to our university hospital (Botucatu, SP, Brazil) complaining of a perianal suppurative ulcer developed two months before the first medical consultation. He was under therapy with prednisone 40 mg/day for six months due to a presumed diagnosis of a drug reaction. On physical examination, a clean 10-cm diameter phagedenic perianal ulcer (Figure ) and two longitudinal suppurative ulcers on the inguino-crural region were observed. During investigation, and soon after reducing the corticosteroid dose, disseminated erythematous papules and nodules were observed in the upper limbs (Figure ).Histopathology of the perianal ulcer revealed a dense histiocytic dermal infiltrate and a granulomatous inflammatory response with central caseous necrosis (Figure ). Fite-Faraco staining showed a few acid-fast bacilli and the hypothesis of cutaneous tuberculosis was raised. The histopathology of upper limbs papular and nodular lesions showed foamy macrophages with globi of bacilli, suggesting lepromatous leprosy (Figure ). The perianal and inguinal ulcers were considered uncommon manifestations of type 2 leprosy developed when corticosteroid was gradually diminished. The patient was treated as for multibacillary leprosy with multidrug therapy and thalidomide.\nFour weeks later, the patient had fever, weight loss, asthenia and worsening of the perianal ulcer (Figure ), but without erythema nodosum leprosum. With this clinical picture, new investigation was developed. The tuberculin skin test was positive (20 × 20 mm) and culture of M. tuberculosis – using a biopsy sample from the perianal ulcer – on Löwenstein-Jensen medium was positive (Figure ). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA analysis from upper limb skin samples were positive for M. leprae (Figure ). With the new information the patient was finally diagnosed as presenting simultaneously lepromatous leprosy – type 2 reaction – and cutaneous tuberculosis expressed by the perianal ulcer. Screening for HIV, HBV or HCV infection as well as lung, renal or colon compromising were negative. Hence, the patient was treated with isoniazid, ethambutol and rifampin for nine months with complete healing of the perianal and inguinal lesions after two months (Figure ). After the tuberculosis treatment, the patient was submitted to additional multidrug therapy for 12 months with dapsone, rifampin and clofazimine with complete cure of leprosy.
A 54-year-old Sinhalese man, an intravenous substance abuser, a tobacco smoker, and alcoholic, who was a garbage truck worker by occupation, with a close contact history of leprosy (his daughter), presented with leonine face and asymptomatic infiltrated papules and plaques over his earlobes of 5 months’ duration and hypopigmented hypoanesthetic patches all over his body for a similar duration (Fig. ). His skin smear and skin biopsy were compatible with borderline lepromatous leprosy. He had a normal BMI; a neurological examination was normal. He had received a BCG vaccination. He was commenced on multibacillary treatment for leprosy (dapsone 100 mg/day, clofazimine 50 mg/day and 300 mg/once a month and rifampicin 600 mg/month) with tailing-off of dose of prednisolone starting from 40 mg daily. Six months later, he presented with productive cough with nocturnal pyrexia; an evaluation revealed high ESR (130 mm/hour), CXR evidence of active pulmonary TB, and positive sputum smear for AFB. Immune function studies carried out to evaluate his immunodeficiency status did not reveal any congenital or acquired immunodeficiency conditions, including diabetes and HIV. Table gives the basic investigations. He was commenced on TB (isoniazid 300 mg/day, rifampicin 450 mg/day, ethambutol 800 mg/day, and pyrazinamide 1500 mg/day) treatment. He defaulted treatment several times with regards to both leprosy and TB and later died due to TB. An autopsy was not performed.