Brief review diagnostic techniques Hansen’s disease

Abstract

Hansen´s disease or leprosy constitute an important health problem worldwide and its caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. In México, during 2009, were registered 555 leprosy cases and the detection rate was less than 0.3 per case 100,000 population. The main mode of transmission of microorganisms is the naso-pharyngeal. The criterions for diagnosis of leprosy are: clinical data, bacteriological, immunological and histological analysis. The objective of this article was to review diagnosis techniques Hansen´s disease. The clinic practice is essential to establish the diagnosis of leprosy. However, the gold standard for leprosy diagnosis is the histologic procedure. In recent years other diagnostic techniques such as amplifying Mycobacterium leprae (DNA) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunoassays like Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay ELISA have been developed.