ORIGINAL ARTICLE Causes of Uveitis in a Referral Hospital in Ankara, Turkey

Abstract

The etiology of uveitis and its associated systemic findings may vary depending on the geographic distribution of patients and local factors. These results represent those of patients with uveitis referred to hospitals in central Anatolia.

Epidemiology of uveitis in a referral hospital in Turkey

“…Consistently, the disease was the leading cause of posterior uveitis (46.1%) and panuveitis (61.0%), and a less common cause of anterior uveitis (9.7%) in our study. Patients presenting with vitritis only, without any accompanying anterior or posterior segment involvement and angiographic leakage, (7)(8)(9). Similar to our study, Kazokoglu et al (10) found BD to be the most frequently associated systemic disease in both posterior uveitis and panuveitis.…”

“…Similar to our study, Kazokoglu et al (10) found BD to be the most frequently associated systemic disease in both posterior uveitis and panuveitis. On the other hand, toxoplasmosis, observed in 7.2% of our patients, was the leading cause of posterior segment inflammation in most of the epidemiological studies (3,(7)(8)(9)12). It was the second most common cause of posterior uveitis, with a rate of 27%, and the leading cause of infectious uveitis in our series.…”

“…Most of the previous studies reported equal sex distribution (3,4,10,12,20,21). There are, however, studies stating a female (6,13,16,22) or male (9,(23)(24)(25) predominance. Female predominance has been explained by the greater proportion of chronic disease in women (6).…”

“…BD cases constituted nearly onethird of our patient population and there was a 3-fold male predilection in this subgroup, accounting for nearly 20% of the whole population. In the study by Şengün et al (9) from Turkey, BD was also the leading cause of uveitis (26%) and the male-to-female ratio was 1.17:1. We think that the reason for the male predominance in our series is the male predilection of BD.…”

“…Uveitis has various clinical patterns and characteristics influenced by multiple factors like genetic, geographic, and environmental factors and diagnostic criteria (4). Various epidemiological studies have been performed in different regions and ethnic populations (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). Furthermore, changing patterns of intraocular inflammatory diseases have been reported (12)(13)(14)(15)(16).…”