ArticlePloS one2022
Evaluation of altered patterns of tactile sensation in the diagnosis and monitoring of leprosy using the Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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8 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- RIMOXCLAMIN's Therapeutic Impact in a Larger Brazilian Hansen's Disease Population.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Trial
- Why Frailty Should Be Assessed in Older Adults Affected by Leprosy and How the Use of Smartphones Could Enhance This Health Monitoring.JMIR aging · 2026Article
- Pure neural leprosy in a child: case report and diagnostic challenges.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2026Article
- Efficiency of the Sensory Mapping Score for Hansens's disease diagnosis and follow-up: a functional cure criterion?Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Case Report: Delayed Diagnosis of Leprosy-Related Neuropathic Ulcer, Insights from a Case of Delay to Diagnose across Four Clinical Settings.F1000Research · 2024Article
- The foot in diabetes - a reminder of an ever-present risk.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2023Review
- Serological testing for Hansen's disease diagnosis: Clinical significance and performance of IgA, IgM, and IgG antibodies against Mce1A protein.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Article
- Laboratory and functional tests in leprosy diagnosis: a practical guide for clinical decision-making.Anais brasileiros de dermatologiaReview
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLeprosy neuropathy is the most common peripheral neuropathy of infectious etiology worldwide; it is characterized as asymmetric and focal multiple mononeuropathy. Semmes-Weinstein monofilament (SWM) test is a simple method to assess sensory nerve function. METHODS AND
findingsIn this prospective cohort study, a dermatologist carried out hands and feet tactile sensation test with SWM in 107 multibacillary leprosy patients at diagnosis and in 76 patients at the end of treatment from 2016 to 2019. At diagnosis, 81/107 (75.7%) patients had some degree of functional disability, and 46 (43%) of them had altered SWM-test in the hands and 94 (87.9%) of them in the feet. After one year of multibacillary multidrug therapy, the disability decreasing to 44/76 patients (57.9%) and decreasing of the percentual of patients with altered SWM-test to 18% for the hands, and to 28.7% for the feet. At the end of treatment, the number of SMW-test points presented improvement in the hands of 22 (28.9%) patients, and in the feet of 47 (61.8%). In the hands, by SWM-test, only the radial nerve point demonstrated a significant asymmetry, while in the feet, the difference between the sum of altered SWM-test points showed significant asymmetry between both sides, highlighting the tibial nerve for the establishment of asymmetric leprosy neuropathy. In Spearman's correlation analysis, a positive correlation with statistical significance was observed between the number of hands and feet SWM altered points at diagnosis and the degree of disability at diagnosis (0.69) and at the end of the treatment (0.80).
conclusionThe patterns of hands and feet tactile sensation at diagnosis and their consequent modifications with the anti-leprosy drugs define the bacterial etiology of neuropathy, an important tool for the clinical diagnosis and follow up of the disease, highlighting the tibial nerve findings, the most affected nerve among leprosy patients by SWM-test, with significant asymmetry and focality impairments.
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