title: [Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease. Characteristics of a series of Andalusian patients].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To describe the characteristics of a series of patients diagnosed of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (VKHD) and controlled by an Uveitis Unit (composed of ophthalmologists and internists) in our population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective descriptive study of 11 patients with VKHD (5 males and 6 women; median age at diagnosis 32.6 years old) followed-up between 1980 and 2003.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All patients suffered panuveitis and/or exudative retinal detachment. Extraocular signs were present in all cases: neurological in 63.7% (aseptic meningitis and/or focal symptoms), cutaneous in 81.8% (vitiligo, whiteness, poliosis, alopecia), neurosensorial hypoacusis (50% of patients with audiometry), and general symptoms in 25%. They all received systemic corticosteroids. Cyclosporine was added in 5 patients (45.4%) with posterior uveitis, and azathioprine in 2 of them for iridocyclitis. The final visual acuity was 0.5 or better in 81.8% of cases, but 2 patients had an unfavourable evolution (one, who had cataract and band keratopathy in the left eye and severe visual worsening, needed right vitrectomy, and the other suffered severe ocular hypotension). Complications developed in 2 other patients: cataract and glaucoma in one, and synechiae without glaucoma in the other.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found less frequency of exudative retinal detachment and greater frequency of cutaneous signs than the communicated. A significant percentage of cases needed immunosuppressive agents. Final visual acuity was good in the majority of patients.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Uveítis Unidad de Colagenosis, Servicio de Medicina Interna Hospital Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: García Hernández
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ocaña Medina
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Castillo Palma
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sánchez Román
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rueda Rueda
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Pulido Aguilera
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: López Checa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D014605:Uveitis / Q000453:epidemiology; D014607:Uveomeningoencephalitic Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology