Purpose:
This study is a uveitis database registry for a large medical group practice in the Bronx with the purpose of describing the epidemiology of uveitis in the diverse service population. The Bronx includes 53.5% Latinos of different races (50% Puerto Rican, 21% Dominican), 30.1% African-American and 10.9% non-Hispanic white.
Methods:
The present retrospective study describes patients seen from July 2010 through June 2011 with endogenous uveitis. Inclusion criteria were the standard clinical definition of endogenous uveitis. Outpatient diagnosis codes were searched. Medical records for possible cases were reviewed to confirm inclusion criteria and gather demographic and clinical data. Diagnoses were confirmed through chart review.
Results:
Diagnosis codes yielded 417 patients,136 met inclusion criteria. Seventy-five patients (55%) presented with their first episode (33% men, 67% women) with a mean age of 47.5 and 61 patients (45%) with a recurrence (16% men, 84% women) with a mean age of 49.9 (p= 0.0001 and 0.50 for gender and age comparisons, respectively). Based on the number of patients served by the medical group overall (~435,000). The study estimates an incidence ratio of 17.2 cases/100,000 person-years (95% CI: 13.3, 21.4) and a prevalence ratio of 31.3 cases/100,000 persons (95% CI: 26.9, 37.7). Anatomically, 96 (71%) patients had anterior uveitis, 12 (9%) had intermediate uveitis, 3 (2%) had posterior uveitis, and 25 (18%) had panuveitis. Bilateral disease was present in 31 (23%) patients and 105 (77%) were unilateral. Following clinic exam and work-up, fifty seven percent were idiopathic (n=78), with other causes including sarcoidosis (systemic) at 12% (n=16), sarcoidosis (ocular) at 4% (n=5), varicella zoster virus at 9% (n=12), herpes simplex virus at 5% (n=7), and JIA-related at 5% (n=7), HLA-B27 related at 4% (n=6), one patient with syphilis, and Posner Schlossman at 3% (n=4).
Conclusions:
This study examines an ethnically diverse population in the Bronx, served by an urban, general ophthalmology clinic. The present study will continue to accumulate patients in an ongoing, simultaneous, clinical registry to address multiple questions in this diverse population.
Keywords: uveitis-clinical/animal model • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • autoimmune disease