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Speaker: Suspect viral cause in cases of anterior uveitis
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BARCELONA — A viral cause should be suspected in cases of anterior uveitis, the most common form of uveitis, according to a speaker.
Whereas 48% of new cases are idiopathic, viruses are increasingly identified in cases of anterior uveitis, Samir Shoughy, MD, told colleagues at the International Conference on Ocular Infections held jointly with the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting.
Samir Shoughy
In a study to determine pathogenic cause of viral anterior uveitis, Shoughy and colleagues included 12 patients suspected to have viral anterior uveitis based on clinical presentation and presence of diffuse keratic precipitates, elevated IOP and patchy iris atrophy. All cases were unilateral.
Using polymerase chain reaction of aqueous specimens, viral genomes were detected in four of the patients: herpes simplex virus 1 was detected in two patients, cytomegalovirus was detected in one, and Epstein-Barr virus was detected in one.
“Viral etiology should be suspected in all cases of anterior uveitis,” Shoughy said. “In our cases, only 33% of the clinically suspected cases of viral etiology were proven by PCR. Actually, what encouraged us to conduct this study is because in the literature there are increasing numbers of cases that are described to have viral etiology, but in our small number of patients, we only found 33%.”– by Patricia Nale, ELS
Disclosure: Shoughy reports no relevant financial disclosures.