OCULAR TUBERCULOSIS PRESENTATION IN NORTH INDIA AND ITS CURRENT PERSPECTIVES.

Abstract

Ocular tuberculosis is a form of extra pulmonary infection, has a myriad form of presentations and is the most common cause of infectious uveitis and panuveitis. It’s quite difficult to come to a definite diagnosis masking its true prevalence. This was a prospective case series study based in tertiary care hospital. Study done at the

Department of Ophthalmology, Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital New Delhi, between January 2018 to February 2019. Total of 50 patients with active uveitis with positive mantoux test were recruited for this study. Demographic data collected, all the patients were started on antitubercular drug therapy and treatment response monitored in regular follow-up at 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 12 weeks in terms of improvement of visual acuity and subsidence of inflammation of eye. The mean age was 39.75 years. The male to female ratio was 1.3:1. The incidence was higher in patients with history of contact with tuberculosis. The most common complaint was defective vision (64%) followed by floaters. Recurrence was seen in 12%. The most common presentation was choroiditis (37%) followed by choroidal tubercles (23%). The mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at presentation was 0.82 which improved to 0.12 at 12 weeks follow-up.

Ocular tuberculosis is a great mimicker of intraocular inflammation and must be initially considered as the cause especially in endemic areas like South-East Asia and ATT should be started early along with steroids to reduce long term ocular morbidity.