Leprosy mailing list –
January 26th, 2005
Ccn: all.
Ref.: morphological index (MI).
From: D Scollard, Baton Rouge,
La, USA.
Dear
Salvatore,
In reply to Dr. Figoni's question (lml 24 Jan. 2005), both
clinical and laboratory specialists at Carville concluded several
years ago that the MI was usually not very useful, and this
evaluation was therefore not usually worth the cost in technician
time. We do not do this routinely anymore, and therefore we did
not recommend it in the chapter in Current Therapy. In
selected research situations it might still be useful to consider
determining the MI, but that is a decision to be reached in individual
projects.
Determinations of viability of M.
leprae can now be performed using radio-respirometry (e.g.
Franzblau SG, White KE. Comparative in vitro activities of 20
fluoroquinolones against Mycobacterium
leprae. Antimicrob
Agents Chemother. 34:229-31, 1990). This gives much more
rapid and reproducible results, although a large number of bacilli are
required (it is useful, for example, in testing new drugs).
David Scollard
