Abstract
Purpose :
To describe vision-related quality of life in patients treated for ocular syphilis and to report risk factors for poor outcome.
Methods :
Between August 2016 and April 2019, adults treated for ocular syphilis at the Hospital das Clínicas de Ribeirão Preto (Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil) had an ophthalmic examination and completed a Portuguese translation of the 25-item National Eye Institute Visual Functional Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25). Gender, age, anatomic classification of uveitis at presentation, HIV serology and antimicrobial treatment were also recorded.
Results :
24 men, 7 women and one transgender person (n=51 eyes), aged between 23 and 80 years (mean 47.8 ± 16.1 years; median 47.5 years), were included in the study. Individuals with post-treatment best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) ≤20/50 in the better-seeing eye had significantly lower scores in general vision (74.2 ± 15.3 vs 50.8 ± 28.0; p<0.05), near activities (81.1 ± 18.9 vs 48.7± 22.0; p<0.05), distance activities (82.2±18.6 vs 45.0±25.2; p<0.05), social functioning (89.5±17.7 vs 62.5±39.7; p<0.05), mental health (67.7±20.5 vs 31.7±18.9; p<0.05), role-related activities (80.8±21.7 vs 30.0±22.5; p <0.05), and dependency subscales (89.6±20.5 vs 53.2±25.5; p <0.05), as well as in mean composite scores (81.2±15.2 vs 50.5±18.7; p<0.05). Patients older than 40 years had significantly reduced composite score (91.0±6.3 vs 67.3±19.6; p<0.05), and scores in near activities (93.4±6.2 vs 65.4±22.9; p<0.05), distance activities (91.4±10.9 vs 66.8±25.5; p<0.05), social functioning (98.6±3.2 vs 77.1±28.1; p<0.05), mental health (76.8 ±14.0 vs 52.6±24.9; p<0.05), role activities (95.0±7.8 vs 58.9±29.0; p<0.05), peripheral vision (95.5±10.1 vs 63.1±26.9; p<0.05), driving (89.2±11.8 vs 35.9±37.8; p<0.05) and dependency (98.9±2.4 vs 74.3±28.1; p<0.05). Age, gender, HIV status, laterality, anatomic type of uveitis and antimicrobial treatment had no significant effect on NEI-VFQ 25 scores.
Conclusions :
Patients with ocular syphilis with BCVA ≤20/50 in the better-seeing eye and ≥40 years of age had significantly lower visual function scores, but other clinical and demographic data did not impact quality of life.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.