QuantiFERON-TB Gold Test Conversion Is Associated with Active Tuberculosis Development in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients Treated with Biological Agents: An Experience of a Medical Center in Taiwan

Table 4

Clinical characteristics of patients with active tuberculosis infection after biological treatment.

Case number	#8	#21	#53
Disease type	UC	UC	CD
Sex	Male	Male	Male
Diagnostic age (years)	47	37	24
Age at biological agent (years)	51	39	24
Diagnosis interval of TB (months)	6	24	21
BMI (kg/m^2)	24.1	20.1	24.1
Comorbidity	HBV	No	No
Concomitant treatment	Mesalazine, azathioprine	Mesalazine, azathioprine, prednisolone	Mesalazine, mercaptopurine
Biological agent period (months, m)	Adalimumab 6 m	Adalimumab 6 m; Adalimumab 4 m; Infliximab 10 m	Adalimumab 12 m; Adalimumab 5 m
TB exposure	No	No	No
TB history	No	No	No
BCG vaccination	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pre-QuantiFERON-TB test	Negative	Negative	Negative
Post-QuantiFERON-TB test	Positive	Positive	Positive
Anti-TB prophylaxis	No	No	No
TB location	Pulmonary	Pulmonary	Pulmonary
Diagnostic method of TB infection	CXR, chest CT, sputum AFS, sputum TB PCR, sputum culture	CXR, sputum AFS, sputum TB PCR, sputum culture	Sputum culture
Symptoms	Fever	Fever, dyspnea	No
Course of TB treatment	Cured	Cured	Cured

AFS: acid-fast stain; BCG: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin; BMI: body mass index; CD: Crohn’s disease; CT: computed tomography; CXR: chest X-ray; HBV: hepatitis B virus; PCR: polymerase chain reaction; TB: tuberculosis; UC: ulcerative colitis.