Associations of Systemic Diseases with Intermediate Uveitis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To determine the associations of systemic diseases with intermediate uveitis.

Methods: The medical records of 50 consecutive cases with intermediate uveitis referred to The Eye Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were reviewed. Age- and sex-matched patients without uveitis served as controls. Patients had complete ophthalmic and medical examinations.

Results: There were 27 male and 23 female patients. Mean age was 29 years with a range of 5–62 years. Overall, 21 cases (42%) had systemic disorders associated with intermediate uveitis and 29 cases (58%) had no associated systemic disease. A total of 11 patients (22%) had asthma, 4 (8%) had multiple sclerosis, 3 (6%) had presumed ocular tuberculosis, 1 (2%) had inflammatory bowel disease, 1 (2%) had non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 1 (2%) had sarcoidosis. Evidence of systemic disease was found in 50 (5%) of the 1,000 control subjects. Bronchial asthma was found in 37 patients (3.7 %), multiple sclerosis in 9 patients (0.9%), inflammatory bowel disease in 3 patients (0.3%), and tuberculosis in 1 patient (0.1%). None of the control patients had sarcoidosis or lymphoma. There were statistically significant associations between intermediate uveitis and bronchial asthma (p = 0.0001), multiple sclerosis (p = 0.003) and tuberculosis (p = 0.0005).

Conclusion: Bronchial asthma and multiple sclerosis were the most frequently encountered systemic diseases associated with intermediate uveitis in our patient population. Patients with intermediate uveitis should undergo careful history-taking and investigations to rule out associated systemic illness.

KEYWORDS:

• Asthma
• intermediate uveitis
• multiple sclerosis
• tuberculosis
• uveitis

Acknowledgments

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

This study was supported in part by a Special Fund from The Eye Center and The Eye Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.