Abstract
Purpose :
Uveitis - a rare inflammatory disease of the eye - consists of multiple different forms of intraocular inflammatory conditions. The etiology is mostly autoimmune or infectious. Because of the rareness of this ocular disease, studies on uveitis epidemiology are limited and even uveitis itself and possible systemic associations are often difficult to diagnose. Therefore the aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of classified forms of uveitis and the associations between the different uveitis forms and systemic conditions.
Methods :
In the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Medical Center of Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany), we could select from our clinical databases the records of 1475 patients with inflammatory intraocular eye diseases between 2017 and 2022. The different uveitis forms were classified according to the standardization of uveitis nomenclature (SUN) study group criteria and data were analyzed esp. for anatomic localization, infection, ocular syndromes, and associated systemic diseases.
Results :
Data were available for 1475 patients (m:f=771:704 patients; mean age:46.4±20.8 years), of whom 58.98% suffered from anterior, 18.98% from intermediate, 17.36% from posterior and 4.68% from panuveitis. 44.4% of all cases showed an association between uveitis and systemic diseases; diseases with primarily arthritic manifestations were seen in 10.4% of all patients, non-infectious systemic diseases (i.e. multiple sclerosis, sarcoidosis or Behçet′s syndrome) in 17.5% and infectious uveitis in 16.5%. 56.37% of cases suffering from anterior uveitis tested positively for the HLA-B27 antigen. In panuveitis/posterior uveitis cases 38.09% were caused by herpes simplex virus retinitis, 20.95% by ocular toxoplasmosis and 11,21% by ocular syndromes.
Conclusions :
Herein we describe a large cohort of consecutive patients from a specialized uveitis center. The high frequency of classified disease, nearly 45%, shows the usefulness of an interdisciplinary approach, which may lead to a targeted work-up, earlier diagnosis of associated diseases and a highly effective treatment of uveitis patients.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.