Cured tuberculoid patients have a greater life expectancy than cured lepromatous patients in Japan.

Abstract

Leprosy patients lack specific cellular immunity against Mycobacterium leprae, but other immunological functions are thought to be preserved. However, in a leprosy sanatorium in South Japan between 1982 and 2000, we found that the average age at death of cured lepromatous leprosy patients was about 5 yrs younger than that of cured tuberculoid patients; [male/lepromatous, 76.0 +/- 10.0 yrs old vs. male/tuberculoid, 79.7 +/- 9.4 yrs old, p = 0.026], and [female/lepromatous, 78.0 +/- 10.5 vs. female/tuberculoid, 85.3 +/- 9.8, p = 0.0001]. This trend was also observed in autopsy records of two other leprosy sanatoria in Japan. In a prospective study based on their age in 1982, among females in the age group between 60 and 69, lepromatous patients (75.3 +/- 6.0 yrs) died earlier than tuberculoid patients (81.0 +/- 5.1 yrs) (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that lepromatous patients have higher risk of death even in a post-chemotherapy era.