Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the first Edition of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation for 2013. As usual, for this first edition I would like both to reflect on what we have achieved over the last 12 months, and to look forward to the coming year.
In 2009, we introduced the concept of “disease of the year,” which last year was Behçet disease. As usual we started the series with the “controversy,” for which we had sent a questionnaire about epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical features, diagnostic approach, and treatment of Behçet disease to experts in the field. The results showed considerable variation in both opinions and strategies justifying such an approach. My thanks go to the editors of this project: Ilknur Tugal-Tutkun, Ahmed M. Abu El-Asrar, Ahmet Gül, Moncef Khairallah, and Shigeaki Ohno.
In 2013, we will continue our systematic coverage of ocular inflammatory conditions with juvenile idiopathic arthritis-associated uveitis (JIAU), our disease of the year, another classical “trouble-maker” in the field of uveitis. As usual we begin 2013 with the results of a survey of uveitis specialists intended to highlight areas of consensus and controversy (planned for the coming issue). This will be followed by a series of the epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical features, diagnostic approach, and treatment of JIAU. Editors for this series will be Ilknur Tugal-Tutkun, Joke deBoer, Doug Jabs, and Arnd Heiligenhaus.
In contrast to a lot of other ophthalmological journals, Ocular Immunology and Inflammation will continue to publish case series and case reports. These will be published as letters to the editor and the cases will often be very rare or the first report of such a situation, followed by a summary and comparison of the previous reported cases.
With these ideas in mind, we hope to continue to provide our readers with the highest quality articles and reviews from the field of ocular immunology and inflammation. Thank you for your continued support.