TITLE:
Frequency of Uveitis among Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Bangladesh: A Retrospective Study
AUTHORS:
Md. Asif Ali, Mujammel Haque, Kamrul Laila, Mohammad Hafiz Al-Mamun, Mohammed Mahbubul Islam, Mohammad Imnul Islam, Manik Kumar Talukder
KEYWORDS:
JIA, Uveitis, HLA-B27, ANA, BSMMU
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Rheumatology and Autoimmune Diseases,
Vol.14 No.3,
August
29,
2024
ABSTRACT: Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most frequently encountered pediatric rheumatologic disorder with an unknown etiology. At present there is no published data regarding the frequency of uveitis in patients with JIA in Bangladesh. This study aimed to observe the frequency of JIA-associated uveitis (JIAU) and distribution of uveitis among different sub-categories of JIA at the Pediatric Rheumatology division, both outdoor and indoor patients, Department of Pediatrics, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Bangladesh. Methods: This was a retrospective study of 1784 JIA patients at the Pediatric Rheumatology division, BSMMU from July 2010 to March 2023. Results: Among the 1784 enrolled JIA patients, we observed that 0.73% of cases had uveitis. Here, 61.5% of JIAU cases were male. Most of the cases (92.3%) had bilateral uveitis and only 7.7% cases had unilateral uveitis. Among JIAU patients, the majority were Oligo JIA (53.8%), followed by ERA 30.8%, Poly JIA RF(−) 7.7% and Systemic JIA 7.7% cases respectively. This study also revealed that 15.4% of JIAU patients had ANA positivity and 23% had HLA B-27 positivity. Here we also found ocular complications associated with uveitis such as band keratopathy (23.1%), posterior synechiae (15.4%) and cataract (15.4%). Conclusions: In this study, we observed only 0.73% of patients of JIA had developed uveitis which is lower than the frequency observed in other European studies. This study also showed various ocular complications amongst JIA-associated uveitis patients which signifies the importance of adherence to periodic ophthalmological follow-up to prevent these ocular complications.