[Incidence of uveitis in the northern Kyushu region of Japan --comparison between the periods of 1996-2001 and 2003-2008].

PURPOSE: To report the clinical statistical analysis of patients with uveitis in the northern Kyushu region of Japan.

SUBJECTS AND

METHODS

This retrospective study involved 735 new patients with uveitis who visited the Kyushu university hospital from January 2003 to December 2008. The subjects were classified into four groups; adolescent (0-19 years), young (20-39 years), middle-aged (40-59 years) and old (60 years or older) and were compared with the results of our previous studies.

RESULT: This study comprised 343 men and 392 women. The age averaged 47.2 years. Definitive diagnosis was made in 385 cases (52.4%). The most frequent clinical entity was sarcoidosis (9.8%), followed by Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (7.9%), Behçet's disease (7.6%), acute anterior uveitis associated with human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 (4.5%), herpetic iridocyclitis (3.1%), human T-lymphotropic virus type I associated uveitis (HU) (2.7%), and intraocular lymphoma (2.3%). The proportion of unclassified uveitis was large among females in general, and among adolescents in the four groups. The incidence of secondary glaucoma in the whole group of 735 patients with uveitis was 22.2%. Among the patients with ocular hypertension, the proportion of steroid responders was large in the adolescent group.

CONCLUSION

Compared with our previous report, this study shows increasing frequency of sarcoidosis and decreasing frequency of Behçet's disease except in the young group. HU showed a decreasing incidence.