Abstract
Many cases of vascular spider have been observed in the leprosy patients in Oshima Seishoen. Up to now, no report was published on the relation of leprosy and this disease. This paper presents the results of the statistical observations and many kind of clinical exminations and refers to the etiology of this phenomenon.
1) Vascular spider was observed in 82, 20.7%, of 396 cases examined. The frequency is by far larger in leprosy than in other skin disease, and is conspicuously larger in the male than in the female (Fig. 1).
2) The manifestation of vascular spider is disposed to appear more frequently in tuberous leprosy (Tab. 4), in the ages ranging from 31 to 51 years old (Tab. 2), and in those who have the progress of disease from 11 to 20 years (Tab. 3).
3) Vascular spider predilects the upper half of the body, but it seems to have no correlation with the sensory disturbances (Tab. 5).
4) In all 38 cases of leprosy patients manifesting vascular spider, the disturbance of liver function was recognized, and the disturbance of interstitium is more intense than that of the parenchym (Tab. 4).
5) The double glucose tolerance test produced an anormal result in all 7 examined cases combined with vascular spider (Tab. 11).
6) The unbalance of autonomic nerve function is presented in nearly all of 10 cases (Tab. 12).
7) Thorn's epinephrin-test showed an anormal value in every case (Fig. 2).
8) The results of skin function tests were anormal (Tab. 6, 7, 8), and the difference caused by the existence of vascular spider was not clearly demonstrated.
9) Gynecomastia was found out in 6, 2.6%, of 228 male leprosy patients and in 2, 2.9%, of 69 patients combined with vascular spider.
10) The frequency of vascular spider in leprosy patients can be attributed to the superfluous circulating estrogen, which is caused by a decline of estrogen inactivating power due to the disturbances of liver function and the destruction of the inner genital and other endocrine organs.
