Uveitis in spondyloarthritis: clinical patterns and differences between axial and peripheral forms.
Acute anterior uveitis is the most common eye inflammation pattern in spondyloarthritis.
Uveitis in spondyloarthritis: clinical patterns and differences between axial and peripheral forms.
The association between uveitis and spondyloarthritis is well established.
Therefore, this study aimed to perform a comparative characterization of uveitis in the various types of spondyloarthritis.
Retrospective observational study that included patients with non-infectious uveitis and spondyloarthritis from a multidisciplinary uveitis clinic.
When comparing axial versus peripheral forms, significant differences were observed: intermediate, posterior, and panuveitis locations occurred exclusively in the peripheral forms, which also showed higher frequencies of chronic courses (p < 0.001), bilateralism (p < 0.05), and greater use of systemic therapy (p = 0.05).
Regarding this treatment to control uveitis, 28.2% of patients required immunomodulatory therapy (more sulfasalazine in axial forms, and methotrexate in peripheral) and 17.8% required biologic therapy.
Biologic discontinuation was higher in peripheral forms (p = 0.059).
Acute anterior uveitis constitutes the most frequent pattern in all spondyloarthritis types.
However, peripheral forms exhibit a higher prevalence of non-anterior, chronic, and bilateral uveitis, and, additionally, appeared to require greater use of immunomodulatory therapy.
Key Points • Understanding and distinguishing the ocular inflammatory processes associated with SpA may have important therapeutic and prognostic implications.