title: A case series of ocular disease as the primary manifestation in sarcoidosis.
abstract: Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic, systemic, non-caseating, granulomatous disease with protean clinical manifestations. This disease is highly prevalent in the southern states of United States of America, especially among African-Americans, but uncommon among Asians. Though sarcoidosis concerns physicians of virtually all specialties, it is particularly important to ophthalmologists since a significant number of patients will seek initial medical examination because of ocular disease. Out of the 262 cases of uveitis examined at the Singapore National Eye Centre over a period of two years, 9 cases were diagnosed as sarcoidosis. We report here 4 patients with active sarcoidosis who presented to us with ocular symptoms as the first and primary manifestation of the disease. All 4 patients developed symptoms and signs of systemic sarcoidosis at a later date. The ocular manifestations included simultaneous bilateral chronic granulomatous iridocyclitis, intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis characterised by vasculitis with candle wax drippings, and optic nerve head granuloma.
authors.affiliation: Singapore National Eye Centre.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sivakumar
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Chee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014792:Visual Acuity