Which feature would most likely be found in a patient with lepromatous leprosy?
The disease of leprosy is divided into two basic types: lepromatous and tuberculoid. The lepromatous form is an aggressive disease, whereas the tuberculoid form tends to be self-limiting. Individuals with lepromatous leprosy have an inflammatory skin infiltrate, which consists largely of macrophages that have a characteris­tic vacuolated or "foamy" appearance (caused by the accumulation of lipids within phagocytes) and intra­cellular acid-fast bacilli. In the lepromatous form, pres­ence of organisms indicates impaired cellular immu­nity, unlike the tuberculoid type, which can effectively kill the bacteria.
No bacteremia
Macrophages with a foamy appearance in the dermis
A positive lepromin reaction
A high cell-mediated response against Mycobacterium leprae