Abstract
To the Editor.— Fever and arthralgia devoid of other clinical connotations are often seen in patients on the verge of the first crop of lepromas. In this situation, a tentative diagnosis usually includes the possible beginning of either rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus. If confirmed, the combined finding of a dissociation between a positive Rose-Waaler and a negative latex slide test, especially if reinformced by a negative Mitsuda skin test, would lead to an early diagnosis of malignant hanseniasis. This would provide the possibility of treating the patient long before the onset of the clinical symptoms of the lepromatous (virchowian) type of the disease. Controls were made to prevent any false results from the introduction of known reactive and nonreactive sera into the test runs. Zonal phenomena were also considered as a possible source of false results and likewise controlled. No false-positive or negative phenomena were observed. Our findings
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