Abstract
Purpose :
There are limited population-based studies of anterior uveitis in Australia. We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional study to determine the incidence and prevalence of anterior uveitis (AU) and report on its disease associations in a well-defined population of metropolitan Melbourne.
Methods :
We reviewed the medical records of all adult patients with AU (as per the Standardization of Uveitis Nomenclature Working Group classification criteria) seen in the Emergency Department and the Uveitis clinic at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital from November 2014 to October 2015. Main outcomes included: date of first onset, clinical course and associated systemic or infectious diseases. Age and gender-stratified population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2015 were used to calculate incidence and prevalence. Agresti-Coull 95% confidence limits (95CI) were estimated for the incidence and prevalence rates.
Results :
The mid-period adult population for the hospital catchment area was 3,500,331 persons. During the study period, there were 580 new-onset and 328 prior-onset cases of active (AU). This yielded an overall incidence of 16.57 (95CI 15.94, 17.32) per 100,000 person-years and an annual prevalence of 25.94 (95CI 25.14, 26.86) per 100,000 persons. The highest incidence rates were seen in males aged 25-44 and 45-64 years (incidences of 19.71 and 19.80 per 100,000, respectively); highest prevalence was 33.33 per 100,000 for 45-64 year old men. Acute AU was by far the most common clinical course (83.81%), followed by chronic or persistent AU (9.25%). For acute AU, the overall incidence was 14.97 (95CI 14.37, 15.68) per 100,000 person-years and the annual prevalence was 21.74 (95CI 21.01, 22.59) per 100,000 persons. Of the 908 AU patients, 138 (15.20%) were HLA-B27 positive; 98 (10.79%) had an associated autoimmune condition, with the most common being ankylosing spondylitis; and 107 (11.78%) had an infectious etiology, with the most common being herpes simplex virus.
Conclusions :
In this pilot Australian study, population rates of AU were lower compared to previous U.S. studies, however, the distribution of disease associations were similar. AU more commonly affected middle-aged males and most patients requiring treatment had an acute clinical course.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.