Frequency of uveitis in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis may be lower than expected, researchers from the George Washington University (Washington) and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester say. The incidence of uveitis in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis has been reported at between 8.5 and 25 percent. In the current survey, it was only 3,4 percent. In this limited number of cases with ophthalmologic complications there was no resulting loss of visual acuity.

Petros Carvounis and his colleges performed a population-based, retrospective cohort study of patients, residing in a community in Minnesota between 1960 and 2000. All of them met American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Patient histories were reviewed using the Rochester Epidemiology Project, from which information regarding rheumatic and ocular disease was extracted and analyzed.

Only three of the 88 identified patients developed uncomplicated uveitis, all with pauciarticular onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Two patients had a diagnosis of keratoconjunctivitis sicca. After a mean follow-up of 22.6 years, none of this five patients showed signs of visual loss connected with the former diagnosis. AG

Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 2004 Sep 17 [Epub ahead of print]

 

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