The use of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors for the treatment of patients with psoriasis has been related to a higher incidence of tuberculosis, specially the disseminated and extrapulmonary forms. Despite their efficacy, these drugs increase the risk of reactivating latent tuberculosis infection, thus requiring diagnosis of the condition before their administration. Investigation of latent tub...

A 61-year-old woman presented with mild pain and swelling on the volar aspect of the wrist, hand, and little finger. Radiography showed a soft-tissue mass shadow, and magnetic resonance imaging showed acute tenosynovitis of the flexor tendons and an inflammatory mass inside the carpal tunnel. Laboratory test results were normal, except for an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (40 mm/h). T...

A 15 month old girl, who had not received bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, and who had no known exposure to tuberculosis, was hospitalized because of Salmonella enteritis. The child also suffered from persistent coughing. The primary routine Mantoux skin test with 100 tuberculin units (TU) was remarkably positive (20 mm induration) for the first time, so that tuberculin conversion was def...

Even today, tuberculosis in childhood is a disease that often undiagnosed and undertreated. In the absence of therapy with antituberculosis drugs, children first years life have high degree severe forms mortality. these children, symptoms are not very specific can easily be confused other diseases bacterial, viral or fungal etiology, making diagnosis more difficult. Nevertheless, introduction n...

We analyzed positive QuantiFERON (QFT) assays, performed between July 2009 and April 2011 in the Mercy University Hospital, Cork, Ireland, which included, 94 patients with latent tuberculosis (LTBI) and 35 patients with active tuberculosis. There was no difference in the intensity of response between patients with LTBI and active tuberculosis (p = 0.1589). In patients with LTBI, there were no c...

Reason for variable response to tine test In comparative studies with the Mantoux test the tine method has shown false-negative rates of between 23% and 64%,1-though studies on highly sensitised tuberculous patients have tended to show a closer correlation.4 This inconsistency has remained unexplained by studies of the duration of application, skin temperature, and release of skin tension befor...

a 35-year-old lady presented with a history of decreased vision in her right eye from one week before her referral. she did not report any significant systemic disease. ocular findings were compatible with the diagnosis of central retinal vein occlusion. systemic laboratory tests were all within normal limits except for mantoux test (ppd) which was positive, 18 mm induration and 2+ redness. che...