Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To analyze retrospectively the diagnosis of patients being followed up at the uveitis service of Hospital das Clínicas, University of São Paulo Medical School, during a 6 month-period, from February to August, 2002. Methods: 262 patients (P), who attended the uveitis service during that period, have their charts reviewed and diagnosis confirmed during the appointment. The following data were analyzed: age, gender, anatomic and etiological diagnosis, disease activity and ocular complications. Results: 90% of the patients had a follow-up longer than 1 year. 61% were female and 39% male. The mean age was 41 years (range 4-88); 10% were 0-16 years old , 42% were 17-40 years old and 48% were 41 or more. Distribution according to anatomic diagnosis was: anterior 20%, intermediate 4.5%, posterior 38 %, diffuse 31 %, and others 6.5%. Uveitis etiology was determined in 78% of the cases, and the most common causes were toxoplasmosis 22%, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome (SVKH) 13%, Behçet’s disease (BD) 10%, toxocariasis 4.5% and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis 4.5%. 40 patients had active uveitis. The most frequent ocular complications were cataract (41%), glaucoma (12%), posterior synechiaes (11%) and retinal detachment (6%). Infectious causes were present in 81% of posterior uveitis, whereas non-infectious systemic diseases were observed in 61% of anterior and 73% of diffuse uveitis. Uncommon diagnosis was observed such as vasculitis associated with antiphospholipid syndrome, HTLV-I/II related-uveitis, autoimmune retinopathy (CAR-like retinopathy). Conclusions: Epidemiological studies may reflect uveitis etiology change patterns in different places and population; nevertheless they also reflect the particular characteristics of each center (tertiary, diagnosis criteria, special interests, etc). The present study demonstrate the importance of endogenous uveitis such as SVKH and BD, as well as of infectious uveitis such as toxoplasmosis and toxocariasis.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: pre • uveitis-clinical/animal model