Looking for Ocular Tuberculosis: Prevalence and Clinical Manifestations of Patients with Uveitis and Positive QuantiFERON^®-TB Gold Test

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To report on the prevalence of ocular TB and positive QuantiFERON^®-TB Gold (QFT-G) test in uveitis patients and describe their clinical manifestations.

Methods: We performed a prospective study of 108 new human immunodeficiency virus-negative uveitis patients. All patients underwent a tailored screening protocol for uveitis and received QFT-G test and tuberculin skin tests (TST).

Results: QFT-G test was positive in 39/108 (36%) of patients, while TST ≥15 mm was positive in 16/108 (15%) patients. None of the patients were identified with active systemic TB. Out of 39 QFT-G-positive patients, 25 (64%) were of unknown cause, which represents a higher proportion than encountered in QFT-G-negative cases (29/69; 42%; p<0.03). Retinal occlusive vasculitis was frequently observed in patients with positive QFT-G outcomes (10/39 vs 3/69; p = 0.001) and was commonly associated with high QFT-G levels, young age, and male gender.

Conclusions: Out of all patients with uveitis, none had active systemic TB but 36% were positive for QFT-G test. QFT-G-positive patients frequently had uveitis of unknown cause and exhibited clinical features of occlusive retinal vasculitis.

Keywords:

• Clinical manifestations
• QuantiFERON^®-TB Gold test
• Thailand
• tuberculosis
• uveitis

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

FUNDING

This work was financially supported by the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The sponsor or funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research. Kessara Pathanapitoon had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The sponsor or funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research. Kessara Pathanapitoon had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.