Characteristics of children and adolescents with rheumatologic diseases and diagnosis of active and latent tuberculosis in tertiary hospital in Rio de Janeiro – retrospective study

<b>Background:</b> Patients with rheumatic diseases have&nbsp;more tuberculosis (TB) but are few studies about TB and latent tuberculosis (LTBI) in pediatric subjects with those diseases. Objectives:Describe subjects with rheumatic diseases and diagnosis of TB or LTBI in a pediatric&nbsp;pulmonology service. Methods:Descriptive, observational and sectional study with patients (0-18y) with rheumatic diseases and diagnosed with TB or LTBI in the period of 1995 to May 2021. TB diagnostic was based on clinical, radiological, tuberculin skin test (TST), bacilloscopy, rapid molecular test for tuberculosis (RMT-TB) and culture. In pulmonary TB (PTB), was used the Brazilian Ministry of Health diagnostic scoring system. Had ethical approval and analysis in Excel 12.0.&nbsp;Results: 26 patients, 19 (73,1%) cases of LTBI and 7 (26,9%) of TB. The most frequent disease was juvenile idiopathic arthritis (13-68,4% in LTBI cases and 4-57,1% in TB), followed by systemic lupus erythematosus (2-10,5% in the LTBI group and 2-28,5% in the TB). The TST was reactive in 89,5% patients with LTBI and in 16,6% with TB. Two patients had TB contact and were with LTBI. All patients with TB had signs/symptoms, 5 were PTB and 2 extrapulmonary forms (EPTB) - skin and peritoneum. All PTB cases had a score system higher than 30. Radiographic changes in PTB: mediastinal or lymph node enlargement in 1/5 (20%), miliary nodes in 2/5 (40%) and alveolar opacifications in 2/5 (40%). All bacilloscopy and culture were negative. RMT-TB was positive in all cases with TBEP and in 1 with PTB. Conclusion:We valorized the TST in LTBI and the score system in PTB in rheumatology.