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Data suggest link between likelihood, onset of multiple sclerosis, uveitis
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CHICAGO — Nearly 60% of patients with multiple sclerosis and uveitis were diagnosed with each disease within a 5-year period, according to data presented here at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.
Researchers included 24 patients from the Casey Eye Institute and 89 patients from the University of Heidelberg who presented with both uveitis and multiple sclerosis (MS).
Wyatt Messenger
MS was 18 times more likely to occur in Americans with uveitis and 21 times more likely to occur in Europeans with uveitis than in those general populations without uveitis. Moreover, MS was diagnosed in 29% of patients before uveitis was diagnosed, both MS and uveitis were diagnosed simultaneously in 15%, and MS was diagnosed after uveitis in 56% of patients. Although 80% of cases had intermediate uveitis at the time of MS diagnosis, researchers found that nearly 1 in 6 patients presented with anterior uveitis.
“With a population size four-times larger than any study to date on this topic, our study provides a wealth of clinical information to allow clinicians to make more accurate diagnoses while giving patients a better understanding of their prognosis,” Wyatt Messenger, MD, a study researcher, said in a press release. “Knowing more about the onset may enable patients to seek treatment earlier, therefore slowing the progression of the disease and limiting the damage done to the nervous system.”