title: [Epidemiology of uveitis in juvenile idiopathic arthritis from a national paediatric rheumatologic and ophthalmologic database].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Uveitis is a frequent and potentially vision-threatening manifestation of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). There are only a few population-based studies providing data on the frequency and severity of uveitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Documentation of patients with JIA was collected in a national database. An analysis of the paediatric rheumatologic and ophthalmologic data collected from all patients that were included in 2002 was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Uveitis was documented in 12 % of a total of 3271 JIA patients: extended oligoarthritis (25 %), persistent oligoarthritis (16 %), seronegative polyarthritis (4 %), seropositive polyarthritis (2 %), psoriatic arthritis (10 %), enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) (7 %), systemic arthritis (1 %), other arthritis forms (11 %). Ophthalmologic data were available from 115 uveitis patients (28 %). Mean age at onset of uveitis was 5.2 (SD 3.2) years. JIA patients with uveitis were significantly younger at onset of arthritis (3.8 vs. 7.0 years), and were more often girls (74 vs. 63 %) or ANA-positive (86 vs. 42 %) than the patients without uveitis. Uveitis complications were present in 45 % at initial presentation of uveitis. After a mean duration of 5.6 years, complications were noted in 56 %, and included band keratopathy (29 %), posterior synechiae (27 %), cataract (26 %), glaucoma (8 %), and macula oedema (6 %). Final visual acuity was less than 20/50 in 31 % and less than 20/200 in 12 % of eyes. In patients with uveitis, immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory drugs were used significantly more often than in patients without uveitis (75 % vs. 43 %).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The nationwide data documents the spectrum of uveitis in patients with JIA, the complications and the therapy for uveitis. The high rate of uveitis complications at the time of diagnosis points out the need for early ophthalmologic screening and therapy, and for a close collaboration between ophthalmologist and paediatric rheumatologist.
authors.affiliation: Augenabteilung am St.-Franziskus-Hospital, Münster. arnd.heiligenhaus@uveitis-zentrum.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heiligenhaus
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niewerth
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mingels
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ganser
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thon
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Pleyer
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Greiner
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Minden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D009885:Ophthalmology; D010372:Pediatrics; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012219:Rheumatology; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014605:Uveitis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*