Original articleOcular Tuberculosis: A Clinicopathologic and Molecular Study
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
This retrospective study was approved by the AFIP Institutional Review Board. The AFIP data banks were screened for cases with the diagnosis of ocular tuberculosis using key words such as mycobacterium; tuberculosis; and acid-fast bacilli. Files and slides stained with hematoxylin–eosin and acid-fast staining were reviewed by the Division of Ocular Pathology and by the Infectious Diseases and Parasitic Diseases Pathology Branches. When available; blocks and unstained slides were sent to the
Results
The dates of the cases ranged from 1932 to 2007 and the age of the patients ranged from 1 to 76 years. Table 1 (available at http://aaojournal.org) reports the pediatric cases and Table 2 (available at http://aaojournal.org) reports the adult cases. When provided, the duration of disease was from several weeks to more than 40 years. Forty-two biopsy specimens or enucleated globes were reviewed from 42 patients; in 37 patients, the ocular or ocular adnexal structures revealed the presence of
Discussion
This study was completed by analyzing the data banks and repository at the AFIP in Washington, DC, during a more than 75-year interval and offers unique contributions to our understanding of ocular tuberculosis. Although the study suffers foremost from selection bias as a tertiary ocular pathology referral center and is dependent on the history provided by the referring physicians, it offers an ample number of cases with unique clinicopathologic correlations supported by demonstration of the
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Manuscript no. 2010-97.
Financial Disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article. Drs Wroblewski and Zapor are officers in the United States Army and the opinions expressed herein are solely theirs and not the Departments of the Army or Defense.