[Practice guidelines for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of tuberculosis in patients with rheumatic disease].

China is a high-burden country for tuberculosis (TB), and patients with rheumatic diseases (RD) are at significantly increased risk of TB infection and progression. Currently, there are no comprehensive clinical practice guidelines providing recommendations for the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of TB in RD patients. To address this issue, the Collaborative Group for TB Prevention and Control in Patients with RD in China, in collaboration with the Chinese Society of Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine, Chinese Society of Rheumatology, Chinese Society of Tuberculosis and Chinese Society of Infectious Diseases, developed evidence-based recommendations. These were formulated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology and the Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) standards. Based on the 14 clinical questions formed from the preliminary research, including: (1) which RD patients need to be screened for TB, (2) how to select the screening methods for TB, (3) whether to conduct re-screening for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) after the initial screening is negative, (4) how to diagnose and differentiate RD patients with active tuberculosis (ATB), (5) the indications and courses of empirical anti-TB treatment for RD patients suspected of ATB, (6) how to diagnose drug-resistant TB in RD patients with ATB, (7) the characteristics and management of subclinical TB in RD patients with ATB, (8) the recommended treatment regimens and courses for TB in RD patients, (9) the interaction between anti-TB drugs and RD treatment drugs and how to choose alternative regimens, (10) how to handle adverse drug reactions during anti-TB treatment in RD patients, (11) how to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-TB treatment in RD patients, (12) the indications for initiating tuberculosis preventive treatment (TPT) in RD patients, (13) the recommended regimens and courses for TPT in RD patients, (14) the protection period of TPT and whether to repeat it, detailed evidence-based recommendations were provided, aiming to offer decision support for clinical practice.