• Jieun Kang, Dae Hyun Jeong, Minkyu Han, Suk-Kyun Yang, Jeong-Sik Byeon, Byong Duk Ye, Sang Hyoung Park, Sung Wook Hwang, Tae Sun Shim, and Kyung-Wook Jo.
• Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2018 Nov 19; 33 (47): e292.

BackgroundWe investigated the incidence of active tuberculosis among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, with or without latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI).MethodsThe study was performed at a Korean tertiary referral center between January 2011 and June 2017. In total, 740 patients with IBD who underwent LTBI screening tests and were followed-up for ≥ 1 year after TNF inhibitor treatment initiation were enrolled. LTBI was detected on the basis of tuberculin skin test results, interferon-gamma release assay results, chest X-ray findings, and previous tuberculosis treatment history. The patients were classified into LTBI (n = 84) or non-LTBI (n = 656) group. The risk of developing tuberculosis in each group was assessed on the basis of standardized incidence ratio (SIR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for active tuberculosis.ResultsMean patient age was 33.1 years, and patients with Crohn's disease were predominant (80.7%). Within 1 year after the initiation of TNF inhibitor treatment, 1 patient in the LTBI group (1/84; 1.2%) and 7 patients in the non-LTBI group (7/656; 1.1%) developed active tuberculosis. The overall 1-year incidence of tuberculosis among the patients was significantly higher than that among the general population (SIR, 14.0; 95% CI, 7.0-28.0), and SIR was not affected by LTBI status (LTBI group: 14.5, 95% CI, 2.0-102.6; non-LTBI group: 14.0, 95% CI, 6.7-29.4).ConclusionPatients with IBD undergoing TNF inhibitor treatment showed a higher 1-year incidence of tuberculosis than the general population irrespective of LTBI status.

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