Article Text
Abstract
Purpose Systemic diseases are frequently associated with uveitis but are often not recognised by clinicians. An estimate of the prevalence in a large-scale uveitis population is essential for understanding the epidemiological profile and may be helpful for clinical practice.
Design A nationwide survey.
Methods Data were obtained from a national database which included the registration of uveitis cases from 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 4 municipalities across mainland China. The primary outcome was identification of a systemic disease associated with uveitis.
Results From April 2008 through August 2018, 15 373 uveitis patients were included in the study. Males accounted for 52.9%, and the mean (SD) age of uveitis onset was 35.4 (15.9) years. After standardisation for age, the prevalence of systemic disease among patients with uveitis was 30.8% (95% CI, 30.1% to 31.6%). Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (VKH; age-standardised prevalence, 12.7%; 95% CI, 12.1% to 13.2%), Behçet’s disease (BD; 8.7%; 95% CI, 8.3% to 9.2%), ankylosing spondylitis (AS; 5.0%; 95% CI, 4.6% to 5.3%) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA; 1.2%; 95% CI, 1.0% to 1.3%) were the most common entities among 36 different forms of systemic diseases identified. The prevalence was significantly higher in males (37.0%; 95% CI, 36.0% to 38.1%) than in females (23.6%; 95% CI, 22.6% to 24.6%), and also higher in bilateral uveitis patients (41.2%; 95% CI, 40.2% to 42.2%) compared with unilateral cases (14.3%; 95% CI, 13.4% to 15.2%), and was highest in panuveitis (59.5%; 95% CI, 58.2% to 60.8%).
Conclusion Approximately one third of uveitis patients in this nationwide survey have an associated systemic disease, whereby VKH, BD, AS and JIA are the most frequent entities seen in China.
- epidemiology
- inflammation
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Contributors PY and ZZ conceived and designed the study. ZZ, ZC, YZ, WZ, FH, XY, GS and FL collected clinical data. ZZ and LD analysed and interpreted the data. PY and ZZ wrote the first draft of the paper. KA reviewed data analysis and provided editorial assistance. PY supervised the study. All authors provided a final review and approved the manuscript before submission.
Funding This study was supported by Natural Science Foundation Major International (Regional) Joint Research Project (81720108009), Chongqing Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology (CSTC, 2008CA5003), Chongqing Science & Technology Platform and Base Construction Program (cstc2014pt-sy10002), Natural Science Foundation Project of Chongqing (cstc2017shmsA130073) and National Natural Science Foundation Key Program (81930023).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, which granted the waiver of informed consent given the fact that the analyses were performed retrospectively and all the data extraction was performed without patient identifiers. The procedures of the study were in accordance with Declaration of Helsinki.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement No data are available. No additional unpublished data.
Linked Articles
- At a glance