5-year longitudinal study of clinical and patient-reported outcomes in acute anterior uveitis

Acute anterior uveitis (AAU) is a frequently encountered form of uveitis, most commonly an immune-mediated condition associated with the HLA-B27 gene with or without spondyloarthritis, or idiopathic in nature. This study's aim was to measure clinical and patient-reported outcomes 5 years after the first episode of immune-mediated AAU.

This is a longitudinal observational study. Ninety-six patients who underwent evaluation at the time of presentation with their first episode of AAU were invited to return for evaluation 5 years later. Standardised ocular history, clinical examination and quality of life (QOL) assessment with the Short Form 36 (SF-36) and the Vision Core Measure 1 (VCM 1) questionnaire were completed and analysed.

Fifty-four patients (56%) returned for subsequent assessment. Physical function was the only sub scale domain of the SF-36 that had significantly deteriorated over the 5 years since the first episode of AAU (45.95 vs. 49.37, p = 0.003). Only 7.4% (n = 4) of patients expressed "more than a little concern" regarding their vision, reflected by a VCM1 score of 2.0 or more. At 5 years, the mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of eyes affected by AAU was LogMAR 0.02 and only 3% (n = 2) of eyes had a BCVA of less than Logmar of 0.3. Five affected eyes (8%) had developed cataract and no patients had developed glaucoma by the 5 year review.

This study demonstrates that immune-mediated AAU has an excellent 5 year prognosis with minimal impact on patients' health and vision-related quality of life.