Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the recent trends of uveitis in Kyushu University Hospital, the regional center for uveitis care in southwestern Japan.
Methods :
We retrospectively investigated the medical records of patients with uveitis who first visited Kyushu University Hospital between April 2015 and March 2020. Clinical data obtained included age, gender, diagnosis, anatomical location of ocular inflammation (anterior, intermediate, posterior, pan). We compared them with the previous studies of our facility and the national survey (Jpn J Ophthalmol. 2021).
Results :
The total number of new patients with uveitis who visited Kyushu University Hospital was 790 (327 males, 463 females) accounting for 4.8% of all the new cases in our eye clinic. Mean age was 52.9 ± 19.8 years (men 52.0 years, women 53.5 years). The frequency of anterior uveitis, intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, and panuveitis were 23.0%, 3.0%, 9.9%, and 64.1%, respectively. Definite diagnoses were made in 506 cases (64.1%). In contrast to the national survey, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease was the most frequent (11.4%), followed by sarcoidosis (9.4%), scleritis (5.8%), acute anterior uveitis (5.1%), herpetic iridocyclitis (4.9%), Behçet’s disease (4.7%), malignant diseases (3.2%), acute retinal necrosis (3.2%), cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis (2.2%), and human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-associated uveitis (1.8%). Four of the top 10 most frequent uveitis were infectious in our study, whereas only 2 in the national survey. When compared with our previous reports, the present study showed increasing trends in Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease, scleritis, herpetic iridocyclitis, acute retinal necrosis, CMV retinitis, and malignant diseases. Among the herpetic iridocyclitis, CMV was found to be the most frequent agent. Behçet’s disease and HTLV-1-associated uveitis were decreasing. Among the patients over 70 years old, intraocular lymphoma was the second most frequent disorder after sarcoidosis.
Conclusions :
Although southwestern Japan has been an endemic area of HTLV-1, frequency of HTLV-1-associated uveitis is decreasing, reflecting on improvements in public health. Increases of CMV-associated diseases and malignant diseases, commonly observed in this study and the national survey, seem to be associated with the development of the diagnostics.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.