The Historical Evolution of Ocular Tuberculosis: Past, Present, and Future

ABSTRACT

Ocular involvement is a rare manifestation of tuberculosis. Four key issues historically faced by clinicians when diagnosing and treating ocular tuberculosis – diagnostic uncertainty, naturally heterogeneous presentations, limitations of existing laboratory diagnostic tools, and non-uniform treatment guidelines – continue to test today’s physicians. Unparalleled scientific and clinical developments over the past century have greatly expanded the knowledge surrounding this challenging ophthalmic condition. Experience with large volumes of cases at tuberculosis-endemic centres has led to recent growth in knowledge and physician experience, perhaps more so in developing countries. Looking forward, the role of diverse new technologies, including artificial intelligence and proteomics, will advance ocular tuberculosis research. Efforts have been made to address the lack of standardized nomenclature, diagnostic uncertainty, and unvalidated, geographically variable treatment guidelines.

KEYWORDS:

• History
• tuberculosis
• ocular tuberculosis
• consumption
• inflammation
• uveitis
• artificial intelligence
• proteomics

Author’s Contributions

All authors contributed to the intellectual development of this paper. VG and RA conceived and planned the study. BKB and RA wrote the manuscript. BKB performed the literature review. BKB, DVG, JK, JRS, PM, QDN, CP, VG and RA contributed to the interpretation of the results and provided critical feedback to the manuscript. The final version of the paper has been seen and approved by all authors. RA is the guarantor on this work and accepts full responsibility for the finished article, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish. The corresponding author attests that all listed authors meet authorship criteria and that no others meeting the criteria have been omitted.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

A/Prof. Rupesh Agrawal has received a National Medical Research Council (NMRC) grant on ocular tuberculosis (MOH-000456 CSA (INV)). This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.