Abstract

Aim: In rheumatic diseases, the possibility of developing tuberculosis (TB) increases due to both the disease itself and the biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) used for treatment. In our study, we aimed to investigate the causes and risk factors of TB infection in patients using bDMARDs for rheumatological diseases.

Methods: Demographic, radiological, laboratory data, tuberculin skin test (TST) results, duration of disease, and medications used in TB patients were recorded in 531 patients who were using bDMARD with the diagnosis of rheumatologic disease.

Results: TB developed in 5 (0.9%) of 531 patients. TB was detected in 10% of the anakinra users, 2.4% of the infliximab users, 1.4% of the certolizumab users, 1.2% of the etanercept users, and 0.9% of the adalimumab users. The mean duration of bDMARD use until TB development was 28 months. All the cases were female, and the mean age was 53.8 years.

Conclusion: Our study highlights the importance of routine chest X-ray, cervical-supraclavicular lymphadenopathy (LAP) examination, annual TST follow-up, and symptom questioning in TST-negative or anergic patients using bDMARDs.

Keywords: bDMARD, rheumatologic disease, tuberculin skin test, tuberculosis

Copyright and license

Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open-access article published by Bolu İzzet Baysal Training and Research Hospital under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Afşin E, Küçük F, Taşçı M. Tuberculosis in patients using biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Northwestern Med J. 2023;3(3):130-8. https://doi.org/10.54307/NWMJ.2023.49369

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