Course, complications, and outcome of juvenile arthritis-related uveitis.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical features of uveitis in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).


METHODS
Retrospective chart review of a subset of 1,081 consecutive JIA patients who were younger than 18 years of age and had uveitis, with a minimum of 1-year follow-up at a single center.


RESULTS
One hundred forty-two patients (13.1%) developed uveitis after a mean follow-up of 6.3 years (range, 0.10-23.2). Uveitis types were chronic anterior (97/142, 68.3%), acute anterior (23/142, 16.2%), recurrent anterior (17/142, 12%), and panuveitis (5/142, 3.5%). Uveitic complications were observed in 37.3% of cases (53/142) and 32.5% of eyes (74/228). When we compared uveitic eyes with complications to uveitic eyes without complications, we found the following significant differences: time interval from diagnosis of JIA to diagnosis of uveitis was shorter (mean, 1.3 years vs. 2.2 years; p = 0.003) and use of oral prednisone was greater (59.1% vs 15.6%; p < 0.0001) in the eyes with complications. Twenty-one children (21/142, 14.8%) with uveitis underwent a total of 62 ocular surgeries. Good visual acuity (20/40 or better) was found in 90.8% of eyes (159/175) and in both eyes of 87% of cases (94/108), impaired visual acuity in 6 eyes of 4 cases (6/175, 3.4%), and blindness in 10 eyes of 10 cases (10/175, 5.7%). Only 2 patients had reduced visual acuity in both eyes. Surgery was the single most important risk factor for reduced visual acuity at the last follow-up (p = 0.0086).


CONCLUSIONS
Most uveitic eyes with JIA achieved good visual outcome despite uveitic complications.
Sabri
Kourosh
K
Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Saurenmann
Rotraud K
RK
Silverman
Earl D
ED
Levin
Alex V
AV
D000293:Adolescent; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology; D002386:Cataract / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005901:Glaucoma / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008269:Macular Edema / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones