Uveitis in patients with multiple sclerosis

Introduction
Multiple sclerosis (SM) is an idiopathic, demyelinating CNS disease, with often ocular manifestations. Besides the most common SM ocular manifestation-optic neuritis, particular attention should be paid to uveitis. It is estimated that uveitis is ten times more frequent in population with SM than on population without it. Purpose: The aim of this study is to present our own observation of clinical course of the uveitis in SM patients.

Material and methods
We studied 9 patients (7 women and 2 men), who had been treated in 2nd Department of Ophthalmology Lublin Medical School in 1993-2006. In I group (2 persons) uveitis was casually diagnosed during an ophthalmic examination in patients with SM . In II group (2 persons), first event of the uveitis was observed in patients with already diagnosed SM. In III group (2 persons), initial diagnose was uveitis, and subsequently SM was diagnosed. Group IV consisted of patients with uveitis, who developed SM several years later (3 persons).

Results
Clinical course of inflammatory process was bilateral, severe and chronic with exacerbation. Panuveitis, cystoid macular oedema, cataract formation, and glaucoma were the most often findings. All of patients were treated with corticosteroids. Therapy with corticosteroids caused improvement in all patients.

Conclusions
The possibility of co-existence of SM and uveitis should be emphasized. Corticosteroids are efficient in the treatment of ocular complications in patients with SM.