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Purpose: To report the causes of childhood-onset uveitis in a tertiary pediatric ophthalmology hospital in Egypt., Methods: Retrospective study of the medical records of all uveitis patients following up at a tertiary pediatric ophthalmology hospital in Egypt from January 2017 to December 2020., Results: The present study included 388 patients. The most common anatomical category was intermediate uveitis (30.4%), and around half of these children had pars planitis. This was followed by panuveitis (25.5%), posterior uveitis (23.5%), and anterior uveitis (20.6%), in decreasing frequency. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis, toxoplasmosis, and Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome were the most common causes of anterior uveitis, posterior uveitis, and panuveitis respectively. Cataract (40.5%), glaucoma (33.8%), and cystoid macular edema (31.6%) were the most frequent ocular complications., Conclusion: The present report provides the relative prevalence of the different anatomical types of uveitis, as well as their main causes in a cohort of Egyptian patients with childhood-onset uveitis.

Background: Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem variable vessel vasculitis. Disease damage is irreversible and permanent. Validated tools evaluating damage are limited. Enhancements in the clinical treatment of vasculitis will take place from the development of refined and exclusive indices for individual vasculitic syndromes including BD and attempting their international validation., Objectives: This aim was to develop and validate a simple BD Damage Index (BDI)., Methods: This was a nationwide study including 1252 BD patients. The work consisted of 3 stages. Stage 1: items generation for score content. Stage 2: items selection for the draft score was performed by an expert rheumatologist. Stage 3: the content validity of the draft score was assessed and BDI, Vasculitis Damage Index (VDI), Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated Vasculitis Index of Damage (AVID) and Combined Damage Assessment Index (CDAI) were calculated and compared., Results: The mean age of the BD patients was 36.1 ± 9.9 years. Stages 1 and 2 resulted in a BDI instrument containing 73 items with a maximum score of 100. Stage 3, the VDI, CDAI, AVID, and BDI were 2.9 ± 2.2, 3.1 ± 2.3, 3.1 ± 2.3 and 5.1 ± 2.9, respectively. High correlations (r = .9) between comparable damage scores assured acceptable concurrent validity., Conclusion: The proposed BDI represents a new robust and potentially useful tool when dealing with BD chronic status., (© 2021 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Purpose: To report the causes of uveitis in a referral ocular inflammation clinic in Upper Egypt., Methods: Retrospective medical chart review of all uveitis cases visiting a referral uveitis clinic during the period between January 2015 and January 2020., Results: A total of 982 patients were included. Uveitis was bilateral in 51.7% of the patients. Anterior uveitis was the most common type, followed by posterior uveitis, affecting 34.4% and 25.6% of the study cohort, respectively. About one-third of our patients were beneath the age of 18, and among that group, no specific etiology of uveitis could be determined in about a quarter of the patients by the end of the study period, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis was the most common disease entity., Conclusion: In conclusion, the present report attempted to illustrate the most common causes of uveitis in Upper Egypt. Tuberculosis followed by sarcoidosis were the two leading causes of uveitis in our group of patients., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2021 Abd El Latif et al.)

Purpose: To report the clinical experience of uveitis associated with Behçet's disease in a cohort of Egyptian patients., Methods: The present study is a retrospective analysis of the medical charts of patients with Behçet's disease, who were referred to a tertiary eye care center in Egypt between June 2010 and June 2018., Results: The current study included 1301 eyes of 681 patients with Behçet's disease. The mean age of the patients at the time of referral was 27.2 ± 3.9 years. Panuveitis was the most common presentation. About 28% of all involved eyes had a final visual acuity <20/200, by the last follow-up visit., Conclusion: Behçet's disease is an important cause of uveitis in Egypt, and despite the fact that the prognosis of Behçet's uveitis has globally improved in recent years, the visual outcome in Egypt is still not favorable especially in case of delayed referral to tertiary centers., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper., (© 2020 Abd El Latif et al.)

Purpose: To describe the clinical profile of patients with HLA-B27-associated uveitis at 2 Egyptian tertiary eye centers., Methods: A retrospective study reviewing the medical records of all patients with HLA-B27-associated uveitis served at 2 uveitis referral clinics in Egypt between January 2010 and June 2018., Results: The study included a total of 554 patients. Anterior uveitis was the most common type. Ankylosing spondylitis was an important systemic comorbidity in the present study, affecting 27.4% of our patients. Cataract was the most frequent ocular complication. By the conclusion of the study, 6.1% of the affected eyes had a BSCVA poorer than 20/200., Conclusion: The clinical profile of HLA-B27-associated uveitis in our cohort of Egyptian patients is similar to that reported from other regions of the world. In our study, a relatively high rate of cataract was observed., Competing Interests: Neither author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned. The authors report no conflicts of interest for this work., (© 2020 Abd El Latif and Abdelhalim.)

Purpose : To describe the clinical experience with intermediate uveitis at six Egyptian tertiary eye centers. Methods : A multicenter retrospective chart review of all patients with intermediate uveitis seen at six ocular inflammation referral clinics in Egypt between January 2010 and January 2017. Results : The study included a total of 781 patients with intermediate uveitis. The study cohort comprised of 282 male and 499 female patients. In over half of our cohort (58.77%), no specific cause could be confirmed. The remaining patients had sarcoidosis (16.26%), tuberculosis (14.85%), multiple sclerosis (9.09%), and TINU (1.02%). By the end of our study, 62% of the affected eyes had a BCVA better than 20/40 Conclusion : More than 40% of our patients with intermediate uveitis had sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, or TINU as the underlying etiology. Owing to their potential morbidity, these diseases need to be considered in Egyptian patients presenting with intermediate uveitis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess disease characteristics, autoantibodies, and disease activity in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) patients with ocular manifestations., Methods: The cohort included 46 GPA patients visiting the ophthalmology clinic. Ocular manifestations were recorded, clinical and slit lamp examinations were performed. The Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score (BVAS) was recorded. Laboratory investigations and the antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) assay were performed., Results: Median age of the 22 male and 24 female patients was 44.5 (32-63) years, median disease duration 6.5 (1-16) years. Ocular manifestations were present in all patients: 12 (26.1%) had proptosis; 40 (87%) had scleritis/episcleritis, with perforation in 3 (6.5%); 33 (71.7%) had keratoconjunctivitis (KC), with acute infiltrative stromal keratitis in 11, peripheral ulcerative keratitis in 15, and sclerosing keratitis in 11 patients. Uveitis was present in 11 (23.9%) and retinal changes including vasculitis, exudates, and hemorrhage were present in 7 (15.2%). Blurred vision was present in 43 (93.5%) patients and 2 (4.3%) had vision loss. Glaucoma was present in 4 (8.7%) and hypotony in 2 (4.3%) patients. Involvement was bilateral in 32 (69.6%) patients. Rheumatoid factor (RF) was positive in 56.5% and significantly associated with uveitis (p = 0.04), while antinuclear antibody (ANA) was positive in 45.7% and significantly associated with KC (p = 0.04). BVAS tended to be higher in patients with uveitis (p = 0.49)., Conclusion: Ocular involvement must be considered in all GPA patients and referral to an experienced ophthalmologist is mandatory for proper management and improved outcome of such a rare systemic disease. ANA and RF positivity may raise suspicion for KC or uveitis, respectively. There was a remarkable association between uveitis and disease activity.

Purpose: To describe the clinical experience with retinal vasculitis at 4 Egyptian tertiary eye centers. Methods : A multicenter retrospective chart review of all patients with retinal vasculitis encountered at 4 ocular inflammation referral clinics in Egypt between February 2013 and February 2018. Results : The study included 618 patients (327 males and 291 females). Of these, 284 patients had isolated retinal vasculitis, whereas 233 patients had an associated systemic inflammatory disease, the most frequent being Behçet's disease, followed by sarcoidosis. In 101 patients, retinal vasculitis could be attributed to an infectious etiology, and among this category, the most common was tuberculosis, followed by toxoplasmosis. Conclusion : In our Egyptian cohort, more than half the patients had their retinal vasculitis as part of a serious systemic disease, or as part of an infectious process, as tuberculosis. And in view of the significant potential morbidity of these conditions, the local ophthalmologists need to be aware of these entities when faced with patients presenting with retinal vasculitis.

Purpose : To report the pattern of uveitis in two referral eye hospitals, one in Upper Egypt and another in Lower Egypt Methods : Retrospective chart review of all uveitis cases visiting the uveitis clinic in Alexandria and Sohag University Hospitals between May 2010 and March 2017. Results : A total of 1315 patients (683 in Upper Egypt and 632 in Lower Egypt) were identified. Uveitis was bilateral in 56.6% of patients in Upper Egypt and in 43.6% of patients in Lower Egypt. Anterior uveitis was the most common in both regions, accounting for 34.7% and 38.2% of cases in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt respectively. Pediatric cases constituted 18.7% of the cases in Upper Egypt and 18.1% of the cases in Lower Egypt. Specific diagnosis was established in 71.3% and 67.7% of Upper and Lower Egypt cases respectively. Conclusions : Patterns of uveitis differ according to the geographical area in Egypt.

Purpose : To report the clinical experience with scleritis at four Egyptian tertiary care eye centers. Methods : Multicenter retrospective chart review of all patients with scleritis visiting four ocular inflammation referral clinics in Egypt between January 2013 and October 2017. Results : A total of 303 scleritis patients were enrolled. These included 76 male and 227 female patients. The most frequent subtype of scleritis was nodular anterior scleritis (44.9%). Rheumatoid arthritis and Wegener granulomatosis were the 2 most common systemic associations among our cohort. Eyes with necrotizing scleritis with inflammation had the lowest mean initial and final BCVA. Conclusion : The visual prognosis of an eye with scleritis varies with the subtype of scleral inflammation. In our cohort, it was found to be poorer in eyes with necrotizing scleritis with inflammation compared to other subtypes.

Purpose : To report the pattern of childhood-onset uveitis observed in Egypt from May 2010 to May 2017 Methods : Retrospective evaluation of the data of all patients with uveitis diagnosed before the age of 16 and visiting uveitis referral clinics in 5 Egyptian Governorates (Alexandria, Cairo, Al Bohayra (Damanhour), Al Gharbeya (Tanta), and Sohag) between May 2010 and May 2017. Results : A total of 413 uveitis patients were enrolled. These included 219 male and 194 female patients. Uveitis was bilateral in 68.3% of the patients. The most frequently observed ocular complications were cataract, glaucoma, and cystoid macular edema. The percentage of children with a visual acuity ≥1.00 logMAR in at least one eye by the final visit was 21.8%. Conclusion : Pediatric uveitis is a vision-threatening condition which caused more than one-fifth of the children in this study to lose vision in one or both eyes.