Visual Prognosis and Ocular Complications in Herpetic versus HLA-B27- or Ankylosing Spondylitis-associated Anterior Uveitis.

PURPOSE: To investigate the visual prognosis and ocular complications in patients with herpetic versus HLA-B27 associated anterior uveitis (AU).

METHODS

This was a retrospective, observational study conducted at the ophthalmology department of the University Medical Center of Groningen. Sixty-two herpetic and 113 HLA-B27-associated AU patients were included. The main outcome measures were visual acuity and ocular complications.

RESULTS

Visual acuity over time was significantly lower in herpetic as compared to HLA-B27 AU, mainly due to corneal scarring. The incidence rate of any ocular complication was higher in herpetic AU compared to HLA-B27-associated AU (0.140/EY versus 0.076/EY, p = <0.001), which was mainly due to glaucoma (0.033/EY versus 0.004/EY, p < 0.001) and cataract (0.059/EY versus 0.023/EY, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The most prominent finding was a worse visual prognosis in herpetic AU, which is probably related to higher prevalence of corneal scarring and glaucoma. In addition, herpetic AU patients have more ocular complications overall.