Trends in the clinical and epidemiological profiles of uveitis in Brazil

Abstract

The investigation of uveitis epidemiology is important because its occurrence, aetiology, severity and outcome are affected by genetic, racial, geographical, social and environmental factors. 1,2 After obtaining institutional review board approval, we examined the clinical and epidemiological profiles of uveitis between January 2004 and October 2013 at the Uveitis Service of Hospital São Geraldo/Hospital das Clínicas da UFMG, a public university-based referral centre in Southeastern Brazil.We analysed patient age at presentation, sex, bestcorrected visual acuity (BCVA), laterality, anatomic classification, etiologic diagnosis, associated systemic diseases, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, hospitalisation and follow-up time. Anatomic classification was performed according to the standardisation of uveitis nomenclature. 3 Among 3683 new patients with uveitis (Figure S1), the mean age was 33.8 ± 15.7 years, 50.3% were female and 6.7% were HIV-positive (Table S1). Posterior uveitis was the most common anatomical type, followed by anterior, intermediate and panuveitis (Table 1). Bilateral involvement (15.2%) occurred more frequently in patients with intermediate/panuveitis. At presentation, 39.1% showed BCVA ≤20/200 in at least one eye and 5.5% were legally blind (BCVA<20/200 in the better-seeing eye).Specific diagnosis/aetiology was presumed in 72.3% of uveitis cases; the remaining cases were classified as