Abstract
Purpose: :
Study the etiology and clinical features of ocular inflammatory diseases in patients seen at the uveitis clinic at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.
Methods: :
The charts of 244 patients seen between January 2009 and September 2011 were reviewed. Among 244 patients, 216 patients had uveitis and 28 patients had extra-uveal inflammation. Data pertaining to patients' age, gender, location of the inflammation (anterior, posterior, intermediate & panuveitis), pathogenesis, and presence of systemic disease were collected.
Results: :
The mean age at presentation was 36.9 years (2-85). Male to female ratio was 1:1.2. 151 patients (71.2%) had noninfectious uveitis. The most common presentation was panuveitis (43%), followed by anterior uveitis (26%), posterior uveitis (21.2%), then intermediate uveitis (9.2%).28.8% patients had infectious etiology, 32% had idiopathic, 30.6% were associated with systemic etiologies, and 5.5% had specific ocular conditions. 3 patients (1.5%) had masquerading malignancies.The most common infectious entities were herpetic anterior uveitis, toxoplasmosis, and CMV followed by tuberculosis. The most common identifiable non-infectious entity was Behçet disease. HLA-B27 acute anterior uveitis, ocular sarcoidosis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis were common.Analysis of 30 % of the records revealed the following: Mean delay of 34 months before presentation to the tertiary care center. Average visual acuity on presentation of 20/160 (snellen chart). 24 % of patients had cataract upon presentation and 11% of the patients underwent cataract extraction before presentation. 65% of the patients needed ocular imaging and serology tests, and 5% needed pathological tests as part of the diagnostic workup.
Conclusions: :
Panuveitis was the most common presentation. Autoimmune and idiopathic inflammation were the most common etiologies. Definitive diagnosis could be established for 71% of patients. Analysis of 30% of the data revealed that patients tend to be referred to tertiary center after long time of the beginning of their disease (34 months) the effect of this delay on the outcome will be analyzed for our cohort.
Keywords: inflammation • uvea • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence