Authors

Abstract

Background: The immune response against Blastomyces dermatiditis is less
clear than that of Histoplasma spp. or Coccidioides spp. This study was done to
evaluate the cellular immune host response in patients with ulcerative and
verrucous skin lesions.
Methods: This study was conducted on 50 patient attended Al-Kadhymiah
Teaching Hospital/Dermatology Dep. in Baghdad (2009-2010). After processing of
skin samples, all cases were studied for various lymphocyte subtypes by using
direct dual immunofluorescence staining method. Independent sample t-test was
used to make a comparison between groups and p-value significant.
Results: Histopathological examination showed 4 biopsies of skin lesions were
Blastomyces dermatitidis positive and 46 biopsies were negative, two cases were
ulcerative and two were verrocous . According to this classification, the total cell
counts, CD3+ cells was found statistically different (p=0.034). Plasma cell (CD19),
T-helper (CD4) and T-cytotoxic (CD8) also were significant when p values were
(p=0.046), (p=0.020) and (p=0.018) respectively. According to the type of lesion
whether it is ulcerative or verrocous, CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD19+ counts for
each type were significant when, P value were (p≤0.001, p=0.003, p=0.026 and
0.050) respectively. However, there were no significant difference was seen for
these cells (p>0.05) among negative lesions.

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