Hanseniasis is a serious problem of public health in the state of Pará, with high incidence and prevalence rates. This paper aimed to evaluate the nutritional status of patients bearing multibacillary hanseniasis relating them to their plasma concentration of dapsone. It is a transversal epidemiological study performed with 29 individuals of both sexes with multibacillary hanseniasis referred to the Ambulatório do Núcleo de Medicina Tropical da Universidade Federal do Pará. Social-demographic, anthropometric, plasma concentration of dapsone and use of prednisone indicators were evaluated. It was evaluated the nutritional status through the body mass índex and percentage of body fat. Plasma determination of dapsone was performed through high efficiency liquid chromatography. Other data were obtained through a semi-structured interview form which was answered by the patients. The results have pointed out that most patients were male, average age of 41.73 (±13.14) and living in the municipality of Belém (58.6%).They have lived into an unfavorable social situation, minimum wage family income (65.6%) and low schooling to the elementary level (51.7%). The nutritional status, according to the body mass index has indicated that 48.3% of the patients were eutrophic. However, 51.6% presented overweight and 13.8% out of them were obese. As for the percentage of body fat, 48.3% were obese. It was observed that 37.9% of the patients have already presented a hansenic reaction, with predominance of type 1 reaction (RR) and 34.5% used prednisone. From the patients using prednisone, 60.0% were overweight and 50.0% were obese, according to the body mass index and percentage of body fat, respectively, though without any statistical significance (p>0.05), when compared to the ones who did not. The plasma average concentration of dapsone in the patient was 0.56 μg/mL. As for the body mass index, it was verified that as the weight of the patient raised, the plasma concentration of dapsone reduced. Eutrophic, pre-obese and obese patients presented plasma concentrations of 0.56 μg/mL, 0.54 μg/mL and 0.44 μg/mL, respectively. Considering the percentage of body fat, it was observed that the average plasma concentration of dapsone was 0.54 μg/mL in eutrophic and obese patients. It was not evidenced any statistical significance between the plasma concentration of dapsone and the nutritional status (p>0.05). Conclusion: The nutritional status did not interfere in the plasma concentration of dapsone, independently from the nutritional parameter, body mass index or percentage of body fat used as well as the use of prednisone was not related to the gain of weight.
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