Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 4, 2026
Quantitative Fundus Autofluorescence for the Evaluation of Retinal Diseases
Published on: March 11, 2016
Three years of experience with QuantiFERON-TB gold testing in patients with uveitis
1University Eye Hospital, Interdisciplinary Uveitis Center , Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, Heidelberg , Germany .
Purpose:
Overview of the results of QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) testing on uveitis patients in an interdisciplinary setting for a period of 3 years.
Methods:
Database search of all the patients tested for tuberculosis (Tb) with QFT.
Results:
Of 343 tested patients, overall 80 (23.3%) were positive and 253 (73.8%) negative (results were nonconclusive for 10 patients). Anatomic localization of the patients who tested positive were distributed (% of QFT(+) tests) as anterior n = 12 (15.0%), intermediate n = 22 (27.5%), posterior n = 26 (32.5%), and pan n = 18 (22.5%). In 43 QFT(+) patients we presumed a diagnosis of Tb due to additional clinical findings. Of these patients 16 were treated with full therapy following WHO recommendations.
Conclusions:
QFT testing gives surprisingly high numbers of positives in uveitis patients. This is not sufficiently explained by immigrant status of the patients. The frequency of positives is substantially higher than in other cohorts. This raises important questions regarding treatment implications.
