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Behçet disease is a chronic relapsing multisystem inflammatory disorder. Ocular involvement is characterized by a bilateral recurrent non-granulomatous panuveitis and retinal vasculitis. Posterior segment findings vary during the course of the disease, in parallel with the relapsing and remitting intraocular inflammation. Structural alterations occur with increased disease duration. Fluorescein angiography is the gold standard in revealing the extent and severity as well as the leaky and/or occlusive nature of retinal vasculitis. Multimodal imaging using color fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, and optical coherence tomography is essential in visualizing diagnostic features, detecting structural changes, and monitoring disease activity and response to treatment in patients with Behçet uveitis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: To describe 3 representative cases of autoimmune retinopathy (AIR). Methods: Clinical records of patients with a diagnosis of AIR were analyzed for demographic data, clinical findings, ancillary and laboratory tests, and treatment employed. Results: Three female patients diagnosed with AIR had bilateral reduction of electroretinogram amplitudes and elevation of visual field threshold within the central 30 degrees of the visual field that was disproportionately more severe than the clinical findings of retinal degeneration. The diagnoses were cancer-associated retinopathy, non-neoplastic AIR, and hereditary retinal dystrophy with secondary inflammation. Optic nerve involvement was also present in all cases. The patient with non-neoplastic AIR was successfully treated with systemic corticosteroids and immunomodulatory agents. Conclusion: High index of suspicion is essential for an early diagnosis of AIR. Visual function and electrophysiological tests should be included in the initial workup of patients who present with suggestive clinical signs and symptoms of AIR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To establish evidence-based recommendations regarding the use of anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α) agents for managing uveitis patients. Methods: Medline was searched via OVID (1950 - October Week 3, 2011) using a Cochrane highly sensitive search (phases 1 and 2). Additional literature searches were also conducted incuding the following databases: the Cochrane, LILACS and the TRIP Database. Results: A total of 54 studies met all of the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. A different level of recommendation and evidence is assigned to each anti-TNF-α agent. The overall rate of reported side effects with anti-TNF-α agents for the treatment of uvetis which required discontinuation of therapy was 2.2% (26/1147 patients). Conclusion: Based on the evidence gathered, infliximab and adalimumab seem to be effective in the management of immune-mediated uveitis. Further randomized studies evaluating the efficacy of these agents are warranted. It is the most common cause of inflammatory eye disease, with an estimated prevalence of 115 cases per 100,000 persons.1 Endogenous or associated with a systemic disease, noninfectious uveitis accounts for approximately 75% of total cases comprising of a heterogeneous group of inflammatory conditions responsible for about 10% of legal blindness in developed nations.1,2 Endogenous uveitides are thought to have an autoimmune component mediated by T lymphocytes specific to intraocular antigens that have failed to successfully pass basic processes designed to maintain self-tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We aimed to describe the demographic and clinical features, ocular manifestations, complications, visual prognosis, and treatment in a large population of Turkish patients with Behçet uveitis. We also aimed to compare visual prognosis between male and female sex and between patients who presented before and after 1990.Design: Observational case series.Methods: A retrospective study of 880 consecutive patients (1,567 eyes) with Behçet uveitis seen at the Uveitis Service, Department of Ophthalmology, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, from 1980 to 1998. All patients met the classification criteria of the International Study Group for Behçet''s Disease. Information on the patient''s sex, age at onset of uveitis, ocular features, ocular complications, visual acuity, and systemic treatment was collected.Results: Five hundred ninety-nine patients (68%) were male and 281 (32%) were female. The mean age at onset of uveitis was 28.5 years in male and 30 years in female patients. Ocular involvement was bilateral in 78.1% and unilateral in 21.9% of the patients. Panuveitis was the most common form in both sexes. Fundus lesions as well as sight-threatening complications were more common in males. At the beginning of the follow-up, potential visual acuity was 0.1 or less in 30.9% of eyes in males and 24.2% of eyes in females. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis estimated the risks of losing useful vision (>0.1) at 5 and 10 years for males and females as 21% vs 10% and 30% vs 17%, respectively. Male patients who presented in the 1990s had a significantly lower risk of losing vision compared with male patients who presented in the 1980s.Conclusion: Behçet uveitis starts frequently around the end of the third decade and has a male predominance. The disease is more severe and the risk of losing useful vision is higher in males than in females. However, this risk has been significantly reduced in the 1990s. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: To report a child who developed kerato-uveitis associated with mumps infection.Methods: A prospective study of a child who was observed at the Department of Ophthalmology, Marmara University, Faculty of Medicine, during spring 2003.Results: An 11-year-old male patient noticed decreased vision in his left eye. His right eye was completely normal. Visual acuity was perception of hand movements in the left eye. Ocular examination revealed ciliary injection and diffuse hyperemia of the conjunctiva, interstitial keratitis characterized by prominent stromal infiltrates and edema, folds in the Descemet's membrane, and microcystic epithelial edema in his left eye. The patient had been diagnosed as having mumps 10 days previously by a pediatrician. Complete recovery of the keratitis occurred on the 10th day of topical steroid treatment.Conclusions: Keratitis and/or iritis are rare complications of mumps. Corneal involvement is characterized by unilateral and painless interstitial keratitis that may cause a significant decrease in vision. Keratitis resolves with treatment and does not have any sequelae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]