Abstract
Purpose :
To describe the clinical characteristics of patients with uveitis associated with multiple sclerosis from a single tertiary uveitis referral center in the Southeastern United States. Further, to determine if differences exist in these characteristics between ethnic groups common in that patient population.
Methods :
Retrospective chart review of all patients seen between 2007 and 2010 (inclusive) at a single tertiary care academic uveitis center. Patients with multiple sclerosis associated uveitis were identified. Demographic and clinical data was extracted from each chart and compiled for evaluation.
Results :
732 patients were identified, 8 of which had associated multiple sclerosis (1.1%). Of the 8 patients 63% were African American, 88% were female. Bilateral disease was present in 75% of all patients. The anterior segment was involved in 88% of patients, the intermediate segment in 50%, and vasculitis was present in 13% (total greater than 100% due to multiple anatomical locations in some patients.) Of the African American patients, 80% had bilateral disease while 67% of Caucasians had bilateral involvement. Anatomic locations of inflammation in African Americans was 60% with anterior disease, 40% with intermediate, and 20% with vasculitis. In Caucasians, anatomic involvement was 100% with anterior inflammation and 33% with intermediate. Presenting vision was similar in all patients except for two patients (one each African American and Caucasian) with presenting vision worse than 20/200 in one eye. All patients had an improvement in vision over follow up except the single African American with poor presenting visual acuity which declined in each eye.
Conclusions :
Multiple sclerosis associated uveitis was rare in the studied population. Patient numbers were too small for meaningful statistical analyses, but there did not appear to be significant differences in clinical characteristics between African American and Caucasian patients with this condition.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.