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The sera of 122 patients with uveitis were examined for the presence of various antinuclear autoantibodies. Overall 21.3% of the patients had antibodies to ribonucleoprotein (RNP) and 18% to Ro (SSA). When subdividing the patients according to primary uveitis versus secondary uveitis, the autoantibodies were detected more frequently in the second group [anti-RNP 13.3 vs. 31.4%, anti-Ro (SSA) 11.8 vs. 27.7%, anti-Sm 10.3 vs. 24% and poly (G) 2.9 vs. 14.8%, respectively]. No differences could be asserted in autoantibody frequencies according to disease location within the uvea. Among uveitis patients afflicted with sarcoidosis a particular high incidence of autoantibodies was detected in comparison with all other subgroups of patients with uveitis. Although the presence of autoantibodies among patients with uveitis appears not to have a major diagnostic value, their assessment may aid to a better understanding of disease pathogenesis.

Of the world population, 38 million are blind and another 110 million are visually impaired. Even in the developed countries there are 3.5 million who are blind. This study of blindness in Israel is based on the National Blind Registry. At the end of 1998, 15,937 were registered as blind, 0.3% of the total population; 776 (5%) of them were 18 years old or younger; 6,426 (40%) 18-65 years old; and 8,735 (55%) 65 years or older. The leading causes of blindness in Israel are glaucoma (2,074, 13%), macular degeneration (1,954, 12%) and diabetes mellitus (1,680, 11%). Since glaucoma and diabetes, and to a lesser extent glaucoma, respond to treatment, blindness could have been avoided in most cases. National screening programs for early diagnosis and treatment of these diseases would reduce prevalence of the newly blind.

We studied the indications for keratoplasty and their changes during 30 years in Israel by retrospective evaluation of pathologic records of 1,018 corneal buttons (from 1961 to 1990). The population included 634 (62.3%) male patients and 384 (37.7%) female patients. Keratoconus (n = 222, 21.8%) was the most common indication, followed by corneal graft failure (n = 113, 11.1%), herpetic infections (n = 95, 9.3%), ocular trauma (n = 87, 8.5%), scarring (n = 74, 7.3%), pseudophakic bullous keratopathy (n = 72, 7.1%), nonherpetic infections (n = 71, 7.0%), and other indications. Whereas ocular infections were the most common indications for keratoplasty before 1970, keratoconus has been the most common indication since 1970. Pseudophakic bullous keratopathy became the second most common indication (13.8%) between the years 1981 and 1990. The number of keratoplasties increased in Israel during the past three decades, and the low percentage of pseudophakic bullous keratopathy is related to the types of intraocular lenses that we implanted in the late 1970s and the early 1980s.