Abstract
To the Editor: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there could be a resemblance of the expected values of serum adenosine deaminase activity in tuberculosis and leprosy. The study was carried out with 85 tuberculosis patients and 46 leprosy patients within the age range of 15-65 years, and the results were compared with those obtained from 76 healthy control group subjects. The specific activity of adenosine deaminase is high in the human spleen, duodenum and T lymphocytes. In recent years, clinical interest in this enzyme has been focused on immunodeficiency. The deficiency of this enzyme can be observed in severe combined immune deficiency disease. 1,2 Leprosy and tuberculosis are caused by the same group of bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae. In these diseases, the cellular immunity was stimulated. Blood samples were obtained from 85 patients (32 female, 53 male) between the ages of 15 and 66 years in Elazig Tuberculosis Dispensary, Turkey. Sixty-five of these patients were diagnosed with active tuberculosis and 20 had inactive tuberculosis. The diagnosis was supported by clinical, bacteriological and x-ray radiography. The group termed as inactive tuberculosis was the clinically recovered group followed without medication, but with calcification findings in x-ray radiography. Blood samples were obtained from 46 leprosy patients (15 female, 31 male) aged between 18 and 65 years in Elazig Leprosy Hospital. All patients were LL (lepromatous leprosy) type without clinical evidence of reaction, and three of these patients were bacilli-positive under multidrug therapy, and the remainder were bacilli-negative. The control group was composed of 77 subjects (25 female, 52 male) in the same age group who applied to the blood bank as donors. Human blood serum was kept at –20°C until the analysis. The serum adenosine deaminase activity was determined by Giusti’s spectophotometric method—adenosine hemisulfate 12 mmol/L and phosphate buffer 50 mmol/L (pH: 6.5). 3
Published Version
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