Behçet’s disease with latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to examine the clinical features of patients with Behçet’s disease (BD) in the presence or absence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 232 consecutive patients with active BD hospitalized between October 2012 and June 2017. LTBI was diagnosed based on the positive T-SPOT.TB assay, negative clinical, and imaging examinations. RESULTS: Among the 232 patients, 68 (29.3%) had LTBI. The frequency, number, and scope of oral ulcers in the BD-LTBI group were significantly more serious than in the non-LTBI group (all P < 0.05). Genital ulcers and eye involvement in the LTBI group were significantly higher than in the non-LTBI group (both P < 0.01). No active TB was diagnosed during follow-up (median, 27.9 months; range, 3–58 months). The patients with LTBI had signs of liver damage compared with the non-LTBI group. In the LTBI group, the frequency of alanine transaminase >2.0, the upper limit of normal, was higher in the rifampicin subgroup compared with the non-rifampicin subgroup (P = 0.033). CONCLUSION: Patients with BD and LTBI had worse clinical features than those with BD without LTBI. Rifampicin might be associated with the damage to liver in BD patients combined with latent TB.