Tuberculosis occurring in association with corticosteroid treatment

Systemic corticosteroid therapy---side effects and their management

“…The corticosteroid group developed one new case of tuberculosis and no reactivations and the control group also developed one new case and one reactivation. Mayfield in 196223 surveyed the experience in 50 British chest clinics. There were 11 668 new cases of tuberculosis in 1959–60, only 30 of these had had corticosteroids within 6 months of diagnosis and there were 10 cases of reactivation in patients on corticosteroids.…”

Corticosteroids and peptic ulcer: meta‐analysis of adverse events during steroid therapy

“…Adrenocorticosteroid agents exert immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory effects and impair antibody production and cell-mediated immunity [119, 1201. Indeed, susceptibility to infection is a feature of Cushing's disease, which suggests that increased adrenocortical hormones per se may be responsible for this susceptibility [12 11.…”

A case of acute tuberculous pneumonia in a patient with asthma

“…Although there is no evidence to suggest that inhaled corticosteroids, even in high doses, increase the risk of pulmonary tuberculosis, 19 the incidence (1.48%) of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients who used inhaled corticosteroids, as reported by Shaikh, 18 was much higher than that in the general population, which, for example, is approximately 0.035% in Japan 20 . It is widely known that systemic corticosteroid therapy can reactivate latent tuberculosis or increase the risk of primary tuberculosis 21–25 . Immunocompromised individuals, such as those that are HIV positive, also have a high incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis, including ‘lower lung field tuberculosis’ 26,27 .…”