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Uveitis associated with parvovirus infection
  1. R MAINI,
  2. C EDELSTEN
  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Ipswich Hospital, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 5PD
  1. Mr R Maini, Department of Ophthalmology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ

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Editor,—Parvovirus B 19 is a common infection in developed countries with a seroprevalence of 40–60% in young adults.1 The commonest age of infection is 5–14 years. Clinical features of acute infection include erythema infectiosum (slapped cheek syndrome or Vth disease), arthralgia, and fever. It is usually a mild disease, but aplastic anaemia may develop in susceptible hosts and it may cause fetal loss if acquired during pregnancy. Acute infection can be accompanied by autoantibody formation including antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and rheumatoid factor (RF)2and therefore infection may share clinical and serological similarities with early rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile chronic arthritis. Uveitis in young girls usually occurs in association with early onset pauciarticular juvenile chronic arthritis which has a high frequency of ANA in the absence of RF. We report a case of uveitis in a young girl, associated with a transient ANA and RF, and serological evidence of acute parvovirus infection.

CASE REPORT

A 6 year old white girl presented with a 2 week history of a painful red left eye. She had an unaided visual acuity of 6/9 in each eye; there was a left anterior uveitis with 3+ anterior chamber cells. The uveitis was non-granulomatous with no keratic precipitates, band keratopathy, synechiae, or flare; she had a mild vitritis but no macular oedema or choroidal involvement.

Her medical history included an unspecified viral illness requiring brief hospital admission at 1 year of age from which she fully recovered. When 5 years old she developed recurrent otitis media and …

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