Tuberculosis is an infective disease that can affect many organs in the body, although the lungs are most frequently affected. It is easy to detect the mycobacteria causing tuberculosis in the sputum. However, there might be problems when detecting the bacteria in sputum, because it might take up to several weeks to detect them. More often, a tuberculin skin test is used. A tuberculin skin test includes intradermally injecting of a tuberculin which is an extract of the tubercle bacillus.


A tuberculin skin test might also cause problems because it might be false positive or false negative in certain conditions, especially if other medical conditions are present, too. A serological test for detecting tuberculosis detects antibodies already developed by the body against the mycobacteria. These tests cannot tell where the tuberculosis is located. The physical examination and the data from the anamnesis might be the best way to find out which organ is affected.
However, this is not a major problem, because the medications given to treat tuberculosis are the same, no matter where the tuberculosis is located.


Assuming that you are taking isoniazid for latent tuberculosis, the side effects of isoniazid are: elevated serum transaminaze, which might lead to hepatiti and neurotoxic effects (which are dose-related and usually do not occur when taken in recommended doses). Rheumatic syndrome and a systemic lupus-like syndrome might also be seen in treatment with isoniazid.


You might want to consult with a specialist for tuberculosis about the side-effects of your therapy. Please consult the doctor that treats your lupus about possible side-effects from therapy on your lupus-related condition.