Absence of Tuberculosis in Dialysis Patients

Abstract

<h3>To the Editor.—</h3> Pradhan et al (229: 798,1974) reported five cases of active tuberculosis in a maintenance dialysis population of 136 patients. They pointed out that while this incidence was approximately 15 times higher than in any population subgroup in New York City, "general confirmation of our findings is required before prophylactic antituberculosis therapy can be considered for all dialysis patients." Since 1964, three hundred twenty-seven patients with chronic renal failure have undergone dialysis at the University-Veterans Hospital complex in Iowa City. Three patients were Spanish, two Oriental, and nine black; the remaining 313 were white. Before 1969, most of our patients received dialysis for three to four years before transplantation. Presently, our average patient received dialysis for 8 to 12 months before transplantation. Approximately 10% of our dialysis patients are not transplant candidates. We have not yet observed tuberculosis in this group of dialysis patients, although the diagnosis of