Antituberculous Treatment Itself Might Prevent Visual Impairment in Presumed Tuberculosis-Related Uveitis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To study the risk factors for visual loss in presumed tuberculosis-related uveitis (TRU).

Methods: Retrospective observational cohort study of patients with TRU, either treated or not for tuberculosis, from January 2005 to January 2017. Clinical and demographic variables were recorded. Main outcome measure was a loss of visual acuity (VA) of ≥2 Snellen lines. A Generalized Estimation Equation was used to control between-eyes bias. A backward stepwise logistic regression multivariate analysis was conducted to elucidate independent risk factors.

Results: One hundred and thirty-eight eyes from 82 patients were included. There were 45 males, median age at onset of uveitis was 40 years (Interquartile range, IQR 24). The median follow-up was 36 months (IQR 49.75) and 51 patients completed antituberculous treatment (ATT) for a mean of 9.37 months. In the multivariate model, ATT was the only independent protective factor for loss of VA (OR 0.13, 95% CI 0.04–0.37, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: ATT itself may prevent visual loss in TRU.

Keywords:

• Clinical features
• complications
• outcome
• risk factors
• treatment
• tuberculosis
• uveitis
• visual acuity

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Mr. Phil Hoddy for his specialist language assistance and for editing and correcting the English text. We thank Ms. Cristina Esquina for her statistical support.

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.