Purpose:
To evaluate the presence of a seasonal pattern of uveitis in a New York City tertiary ophthalmology care center.
Methods:
Records from ophthalmology visits at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary over the period of five years (2001-2005) were retrospectively analyzed. Uveitis-related visits we identified and were further analyzed for the presence of a seasonal pattern for uveitis.
Results:
The total number of ophthalmology visits during the analyzed period was 552 432, of which 21 440 (3.88%) were uveitis related. The average monthly uveitis related emergency visits, new uveitis patient visits, and total monthly number of uveitis related visits all showed an increase during the month May. Anterior uveitis was the most common anatomical diagnosis in the uveitis group accounting for 12 457 visits (58.25% of total uveitis related visits). Acute anterior uveitis accounted for 7624 visits (35.39% of total uveitis visits and 60.76% of anterior uveitis visits). Acute anterior uveitis related visits, also showed an increase in the month of May.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate the presence of a seasonal pattern for uveitis in the period 2001-2005 in a New York City. This seasonal pattern suggests the presence of one or more environmental factors that play a role in the etiopathology of uveitis.
Keywords: inflammation • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: biostatistics/epidemiology methodology • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence