Long-term clinical outcome and causes of vision loss in patients with uveitis

Oren Tomkins-Netzer, Lazha Talat, Asaf Bar, Albert Lula, Simon R.J. Taylor, Lavnish Joshi, Sue Lightman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

183 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term clinical and functional outcome, risks, and causes of vision loss and burden of disease among patients with uveitis. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants: The study included 1076 patients diagnosed with uveitis who attended the uveitis clinic at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, United Kingdom, between 2011 and 2013. Methods: Information was gathered from the notes of all patients who were examined in the clinic. Main Outcome Measures: Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), causes of moderate vision loss (MVL; 20/50-20/120), and severe vision loss (SVL; ≤20/200). Results: The study included 1799 eyes of 1076 patients with an average follow-up of 7.97±0.17 years (median, 5.6 years; range, 1 month-54 years; 8159 patient-years; 14 226 eye-years). Average BCVA remained stable for patients with anterior uveitis (20/30 at baseline to 20/33 at 10 years), as well as for those with nonanterior uveitis (20/50 at baseline to 20/47 at 10 years). Vision loss was noted in 19.2% of eyes, with an incidence for MVL of 0.01 per eye-year or 0.02 per patient-year and for SVL of 0.01 per eye-year or 0.02 per patient-year. Patients were more at risk of vision loss if they had non-anterior uveitis disease, vitreous opacities, retinal detachment, cystoid macular edema (CME), macular scarring, macular hole, optic neuropathy, or macular ischemia. Chronic CME was the most common cause of MVL (3.55%), and macular scarring was the most common cause for irreversible SVL (4%). Among 525 patients (48.7%) who received oral prednisolone, 320 (61%) required a dose of more than 40 mg/day and 130 (24.8%) also required 1 or more second-line agents. Patients were reviewed on average 33.7±0.7 times or 5.9±0.46 times/year. Conclusions: Long-term functional outcome among uveitis patients is good, with BCVA remaining stable for more than 10 years of follow-up. In cases when vision loss occurs, it is related mainly to retinal changes. The burden on clinical services is similar regardless of the severity of disease or the risk of vision loss.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2387-2392
Number of pages6
JournalOphthalmology
Volume121
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2014
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institute of Health Research, London, United KingdomNIHR-CDF -2011-04-051

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