Etiology and Clinical Features of Anterior Uveitis in Southern Croatia (Dalmatia)

Patients with endogenous uveitis represent 6.5% of patients in University Hospital Split, which serves most of South Croatia. Within a four-year period 208 patients were treated for endogenous uveitis. Results of clinical-laboratory examinations and treatment of 112 subjects suffering from anterior uveitis are presented and compared. Acute anterior uveitis (AAU) was the commonest form of uveal inflammation. It was present in 49% of all uveitis cases and in 91.1% of all anterior uveitis cases (AU). 67.6% of the subjects with AAU had and 32.4% did not have the HLA B27 antigen. The inflammatory pattern in B27(+) patients was typical of B27(+) AAU. Patients with B27(+) AAU exhibited the same inflammatory pattern as those with B7(+) AAU. B27(+) AAU patients had significantly more systemic/rheumatic diseases (p<0.05), while patients with B27(-) AAU had significantly more infectious diseases (p<0.05). Forty percent of the patients with chronic anterior uveitis suffered from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The authors observed the rise in peripheral blood IgG, IgA, IgM, CD2(+), CD4(+) and B cells during the acute phase of AAU. Normalization of B cells (CD20(+)) was observed in early remission of anterior uveitis, about eight weeks after the onset of the disease.