Patients with uveitis -- an inflammation of the uveal tract that supplies blood to the retina -- should undergo routine testing for tuberculosis infection, researchers in Japan say. Yoshihiro Morimura and colleagues working at the Kyorin University School of Medicine in Tokyo conducted a study to "evaluate the results of tuberculin skin testing in Japanese patients with intraocular inflammation and to assess the outcome of treatment for presumed intraocular tuberculosis in selected patients." ("Tuberculin Skin Testing in Uveitis Patients and Treatment of Presumed Intraocular Tuberculosis In Japan," Opthalmology, 2002;109(5):851-857).

A significant proportion of uveitis patients in Japan tested positive for tuberculosis with signs of intraocular infection, Morimura and coauthors found. The researchers performed tuberculin skin tests on 126 patients suffering from uveal inflammation. More than 20 percent of the study participants had a reaction indicating tuberculosis infection, they said.

In addition, about 40 percent of the patients with positive tuberculin skin tests showed features of intraocular infection, such as choroidal inflammation or nodules, optic disc nodules or retinal vasculitis. Nine out of 10 patients with signs of intraocular tuberculosis responded well to treatment with isoniazid and/or rifampicin and oral corticosteroids, study data showed. None of the patients with suspected tuberculosis infection tested positive for HIV infection.

"These results suggest that intraocular tuberculosis continues to be a major diagnostic consideration for uveitis patients in Japan," Morimura and colleagues concluded.

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