Oryginal paper
Idiopathic anterior uveitis – is it a rheumatic disease?

Anterior uveitis is an acute, recurrent, sight-threatening disease that in 20% of patients leads to severe visual loss
or blindness. 60% of patients with anterior uveitis have additional manifestations of systemic disease; in 85% of them spondyloarthropathy (SpA) can be diagnosed. However,
up to 30% of patients with anterior uveitis cannot be diagnosed with any associated disease. We studied 20 patients (11 men,
9 women, mean age 34 yrs) with recurrent, non-exogenous, sight-threatening AU. Rheumatic disease was diagnosed in
9 (45%) patients; all of them were diagnosed as seronegative spondylarthropathy. 17 (85%) patients agreed for treatment with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The drug
of first choice was cyclosporin A. The treatment period was
at least 11 months. We observed relapse in 4 patients during treatment. 13 patients are still in remission. On the basis
of cumulative proportion analysis we confirmed significant extension of remission period during treatment compared with mean remission period before treatment. We concluded that treatment with DMARDs in patients with anterior uveitis led
to significant extension of remission period, independently
of systemic disease diagnosis.