Original articleRole of Anti-Tubercular Therapy in Uveitis With Latent/Manifest Tuberculosis
Section snippets
Methods
Of the 4,000 patients who presented to the uveitis clinic at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, between January 11, 1991 and September 5, 2005, patients who met the inclusion criteria were included in this study and assigned to Group A (216 patients) if they received anti-tubercular therapy along with standard corticosteroid therapy (topical, periocular, and/or oral), and Group B (144 patients) if they received standard corticosteroid therapy
Results
Of 350 patients with uveitis who were started on anti-tubercular therapy for latent/manifest TB, 134 patients (38.3%) did not complete the treatment course. The reasons for not completing the treatment were: 1) failure to follow-up (92 patients); 2) intolerance or adverse side effects to anti-tubercular therapy (14 patients); and 3) poor compliance (28 patients). Thus, there were 216 patients in Group A, 104 men and 112 women, with a mean age of 34.68 ± 12.18 years (age range, 12 to 70 years).
Discussion
Etiology cannot be established in 30% to 60% of uveitis patients.33 In TB-endemic areas such as India, the association of latent TB with uveitis is often ignored. Such patients continue to carry a label of idiopathic uveitis and are treated with local (topical, periocular) and/or systemic corticosteroids depending upon the location of uveitis.
The true prevalence of tubercular uveitis remains a major concern in TB-endemic areas. Demonstration of acid-fast bacilli on smear or histopathology of
Reema Bansal is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Advanced Eye Centre at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. She is currently working on diseases of Retina and Uvea.
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Cited by (0)
Reema Bansal is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Advanced Eye Centre at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. She is currently working on diseases of Retina and Uvea.
Amod Gupta is a Professor and heads the Department of Ophthalmology at the Advanced Eye Centre at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh India. He has extensively published original work in diseases of Retina and Uvea.