Disseminated Tuberculosis Secondary to Adalimumab

Abstract

A 62-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis presented with fever (T–103.9°F). Vital signs and physical examination were normal. She was taking adalimumab, methotrexate, and prednisone for the past 9 months. Blood and urine cultures, human immunodeficiency virus, rapid plasma reagin, purified protein derivative, and cerebrospinal fluid test findings were negative. Computed tomography showed scattered 0.2-cm nodules in the lungs and innumerable subcentimeter lesions in the liver and spleen. Broad-spectrum antibiotics were started empirically. Liver biopsy findings revealed necrotizing granulomas and were negative for acid fast bacilli and fungi on staining. As the patient was persistently febrile despite antibiotics, the antibiotics were discontinued, and an antituberculous regimen including INH, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide was initiated empirically on day 40 of hospitalization. Fourteen days after liver biopsy, acid-fast bacilli grew in the tissue culture. Disseminated tuberculosis (TB) was diagnosed. Fever subsided after 1 week of anti-TB treatment. Antitumor necrosis factor alpha therapy in rheumatoid arthritis increases the risk of TB 5-fold. This is mostly as a result of reactivation of latent TB and commonly presents as disseminated TB. It usually occurs in the early stage of treatment. In our patient, the screening test results for TB before initiation of Adalimumab could have been falsely negative due to immunosuppression secondary to steroids. Our case emphasizes that current screening tests can miss latent TB especially in immunosuppressed patients. As it is difficult to diagnose TB with polymerase chain reaction and culture, histopathology should be sought early. Patients on antitumor necrosis factor alpha therapy presenting with fever of unknown origin should be considered for empirical anti-TB treatment regardless of microbiological and tissue diagnosis.