Visual Prognosis and Ocular Complications in Herpetic versus HLA-B27- or Ankylosing Spondylitis-associated Anterior Uveitis

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the visual prognosis and ocular complications in patients with herpetic versus HLA-B27 associated anterior uveitis (AU).

Methods: This was a retrospective, observational study conducted at the ophthalmology department of the University Medical Center of Groningen. Sixty-two herpetic and 113 HLA-B27-associated AU patients were included. The main outcome measures were visual acuity and ocular complications.

Results: Visual acuity over time was significantly lower in herpetic as compared to HLA-B27 AU, mainly due to corneal scarring. The incidence rate of any ocular complication was higher in herpetic AU compared to HLA-B27-associated AU (0.140/EY versus 0.076/EY, p = <0.001), which was mainly due to glaucoma (0.033/EY versus 0.004/EY, p < 0.001) and cataract (0.059/EY versus 0.023/EY, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: The most prominent finding was a worse visual prognosis in herpetic AU, which is probably related to higher prevalence of corneal scarring and glaucoma. In addition, herpetic AU patients have more ocular complications overall.

• Anterior uveitis
• herpes
• HLA-B27
• ocular complications
• visual prognosis

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding

Financial support was provided by Professor Mulder Stichting, Stichting Nederlands Oogheelkundig Onderzoek, and Stichting Blindenhulp.