Indian Journal of Ophthalmology

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Year
: 2015  |  Volume : 63  |  Issue : 12  |  Page : 932--933

Comment on: Donate eyes, not patients!


Krishnan Panakanti Tandava 
 Consultant, Vitreo Retinal Services, Vasan Eye Care Hospital, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Correspondence Address:
Krishnan Panakanti Tandava
Vasan Eye Care Hospital, No. 12, MIG, Dharmareddy Colony, Opposite J.N.T.U. Junction, Kukatpally, Hyderabad - 500 072, Telangana
India




How to cite this article:
Tandava KP. Comment on: Donate eyes, not patients!.Indian J Ophthalmol 2015;63:932-933


How to cite this URL:
Tandava KP. Comment on: Donate eyes, not patients!. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 2015 [cited 2024 Mar 28 ];63:932-933
Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ijo/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?2015/63/12/932/176037


Full Text

Dear Sir,

The article "Donate eyes, not patients!" by Naik MN made an interesting read.[1] The author has rightly stated that we ophthalmologists repose more faith in our colleagues of different specialties rather than our own collective wisdom.

Let us take the case of suspected ocular tuberculosis (TB). Physicians are known to take extreme positions in such scenarios. While a few declare a patient free of TB because of healthy respiratory sounds on auscultation in consonance with a normal chest radiograph completely ignoring the possibility of extrapulmonary TB, some others prefer to treat their patients based on a positive interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) test. As IGRAs do not differentiate between latent and active TB, there is a risk of patients being subjected to unnecessary therapy with its attendant risks if the patients were to be treated solely on the basis of IGRA. A systematic review studying the efficacy of IGRAs to detect active TB in low- to middle-income countries found the sensitivity to be around 69–83% and specificity to be around 52–61%.[2] Moreover, there was no evidence to suggest that IGRAs were more sensitive than Mantoux test for the diagnosis of active TB. It was found that when IGRA was performed in culture-proven active TB cases, one in four (25%) cases showed a negative IGRA test. Babu et al. have found that QuantiFERON ® TB gold test had a sensitivity of 58% and specificity of 77% to detect active systemic TB and a sensitivity of 82% and specificity of 76% in cases of intraocular TB. They thus inferred that QuantiFERON ® TB gold test by itself may not be of much value in cases of presumed ocular TB.[3]

Similarly, a request for physician clearance prior to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections is met with opinions which reveal their lack of depth in this particular aspect of clinical medicine. Hence, we ophthalmologists are better of making our judgments based on the available data rather than seek opinion from physicians who find the queries esoteric![4]

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

References

1Naik MN. Donate eyes, not patients! Indian J Ophthalmol 2015;63:564-5.
2Metcalfe JZ, Everett CK, Steingart KR, Cattamanchi A, Huang L, Hopewell PC, et al. Interferon-γ release assays for active pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis in adults in low- and middle-income countries: Systematic review and meta-analysis. J Infect Dis 2011;204 Suppl 4:S1120-9.
3Babu K, Satish V, Satish S, Subbakrishna DK, Abraham MP, Murthy KR. Utility of QuantiFERON TB gold test in a South Indian patient population of ocular inflammation. Indian J Ophthalmol 2009;57:427-30.
4Moja L, Lucenteforte E, Kwag KH, Bertele V, Campomori A, Chakravarthy U, et al. Systemic safety of bevacizumab versus ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2014;9:CD011230.