1974 Volume 43 Issue 4 Pages 294-306
This is a report of a case of typical Kaposi's sarcoma with visceral involvement (lungs, stomach, bone marrow, lymphnodes, spleen, thyroid, etc). The first skin lesion was seen in the occipital scalp and the patient died after one year and two months clinical course. The case was a 59 year old male who has had a history of lepromatous leprosy of 33 years duration. The combination of Kaposi's sarcoma and lepromatous leprosy is not considered as accidental. There must be some connection between these diseases through immunosuppresive relation. Electron-microscopic studies were carried out and no virus or virus-like particles were seen in the sections, studied. This, how-ever, is not enough proof to deny the possiblity of a virus cause of this disease.
We considered the case very valuable to help explain the immunosuppresive problem in those who suffer from lepromatous leprosy. Leprosy must have a hypofunction of its immune competent system consisting of lymphocytes, reticuloendothelial cells and mac-rophages.
We also considered the reason for the high frequency of Kaposi's sarcoma seen in Congo and Uganda. There are great differencies in the clinical manifestations between the cases in Uganda and in our country. It is recognized that the cases in equatorial Africa show a great variation in symptoms and signs. Finally, we discussed the problem of the multicentric origin and metastatic lesions of Kaposi's sarcoma.
