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Predictors of glaucoma in patients with uveitis and scleritis

Eye (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

To examine risk factors for development of glaucoma in a large cohort of subjects with uveitis and scleritis.

Methods

Retrospective review of subjects diagnosed with uveitis or scleritis between 2006 and 2019 at Auckland District Health Board. Subjects were excluded if they had glaucoma due to another cause. Main outcome measure was development of glaucoma. Data for local steroid use was not available.

Results

3462 eyes of 2414 subjects were included in the study. Mean follow-up was 5.7 years (total follow-up time 19,897 eye years). Median age was 44.3 years and 1189 (49.3%) were female. Glaucoma developed in 222 eyes (6.3%) during the follow-up. Five-year cumulative risk of glaucoma was 6.2% (CI 5.0–7.5%) for anterior uveitis, 5.4% (CI 3.2–9.0%) for intermediate uveitis, 1.6% (CI 0.4–6.7%) for posterior uveitis, 8.7% (CI 6.5–11.7%) for panuveitis, and 3.2% (CI 1.0–9.5%) for scleritis. Five-year cumulative risk of glaucoma was lowest in HLA-B27 uveitis at 0.9% (CI 0.4–2.1%) and highest in viral uveitis 15.1% (CI 10.1–22.3%), sarcoidosis 9.9% (CI 6.1–15.9%) and tuberculosis 9.7% (CI 5.4–17.0%). On multivariate analysis, risk factors for development of glaucoma were older age at presentation, higher presenting intraocular pressure, chronic inflammation, and cystoid macular oedema.

Conclusions

Glaucoma is a common complication of uveitis and scleritis and was more frequent in older subjects, high presenting IOP, chronic inflammation and those with cystoid macular oedema. Local steroid therapy contributes to this, but is not quantifiable in this study. Targeted screening is required to avoid irreversible progression of glaucomatous optic neuropathy.

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Fig. 1: Cumulative hazard of uveitic glaucoma in eyes with chronic inflammation or acute recurrent inflammation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Auckland District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand

    R. L. Niederer, A. B. C. Wong, T. Ma, S. Chew & J. Sims

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    R. L. Niederer

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  1. R. L. Niederer
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  2. A. B. C. Wong
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  3. T. Ma
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  4. S. Chew
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  5. J. Sims
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Contributions

RN was responsible for study design, data collection, statistical analysis, interpretation and paper writing and review. AW was responsible for analysis, paper writing and review. TM, SC and JS all contributed to collection and review of data and paper review.

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Correspondence to R. L. Niederer.

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Niederer, R.L., Wong, A.B.C., Ma, T. et al. Predictors of glaucoma in patients with uveitis and scleritis. Eye (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-022-02101-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-022-02101-7

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