Abstract: Objective   To diagnose and identify pathogen of two suspected cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis.  Methods   Two cases of dermatosis with several major ulcers on the skin were examined， who worked and returned from Algeria （case 1） and Saudi Arabia （case 2）， respectively. The stained smears of skin tissue from lesions were observed by microscope. Extravasate from lesions was cultured in NNN medium to search protozoan parasites， which were obtained by centrifugation. Two pairs of species-specific primers， ITS1-ITS2 and K13A-K13B， were used to amplify internal transcribed spacer of rDNA and kinetoplast DNA， respectively. The products were sequenced and analyzed by Blast.  Results  There were Leishmania amastigotes in the tissue smear of case 2， while none in that of case 1. Promastigotes were found in culture medium of both cases. The PCR products of ITS1-ITS2 and K13A-K13B from 2 cases were about 330 bp and 120 bp with respective homology of 100% and 96% to corresponding sequences of Leishmania major. The accession numbers of 4 sequences were JF831924-JF831927.   Conclusion   Two cases of dermatosis are diagnosed as imported cutaneous leishmaniasis and the pathogen is L. major.

Key words: Imported cutaneous leishmaniasis, Leishmania major, Molecular biology, Species identification