The Incidence And Risk Factors Of Tuberculosis In Connective Tissue Disease :A Meta-analysis

Objetive: To evaluate the incidence and risk factors of tuberculosis in patients with connective tissue diseaseMethods: We searched several databases about the tuberculosis in patients with major connective tissue diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis,systemic lupus erythematosus,dermatomyositis/polymyositis,Sjogren's syndrome,and systemic sclerosis.The data was collected and the meta-analysis was performed using Stata software.Results: A total of 66575 patients in 20 studies were analyzed synthetically by Meta-analysis.The prevalence of connective tissue disease with tuberculosis was calculated to be 1.88%(95% CI: 1.46-2.30).The rate of tuberculosis infection in patients with connective tissue disease was as follows:System Lupus erythematosus is 3.15%(95% CI: 2.17-4.13)?dermatomyositis/polymyositis 2.49%(95% CI: 1.19-3.78)? systemic sclerosis 1.43%(95% CI: 0.63-2.24)?Sjogren's syndrome 0.97%(95% CI: 0.78-1.15)?rheumatoid arthritis 0.41%(95% CI: 0.35-0.47).Among them,systemic lupus erythematosus has the highest incidence of tuberculosis.And we evaluated the risk factors for systemic lupus erythematosus with tuberculosis.The results showed that tuberculosis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus was associated with previous tuberculosis history,anemia,immunosuppressive agent,and the treatment of glucocorticoid.Conclusion : Connective tissue diseases are associated with an increased risk of TB.Systemic lupus erythematosus is associated with tuberculosis infection.Our study indicated that patients with SLE exhibited the highest risk of tuberculosis.The risk factors for tuberculosis in SLE are previous tuberculosis history,anemia,and the use of immunosuppressive agent and glucocorticoids.