Clinical characteristics of intermediate uveitis in adult Turkish patients.

AIM: To describe the clinical characteristics of Turkish patients with intermediate uveitis (IU) and to investigate the effect of clinical findings and complications on final visual acuity (VA).

METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients with IU who had at least 6mo of follow-up and were older than 16y.

RESULTS: A total of 78 eyes of 45 patients were included in the study and the mean follow-up period was 19.4mo. The mean age at the time of presentation was 42.9s. Systemic disease associations were found in 17.7% of cases; sarcoidosis (8.8%) and multiple sclerosis (6.6%) were the most common diseases. Recurrence rate (odds ratio=45.53; 95%CI: 2.181-950.58), vitritis equals to or more than 3+ cells (odds ratio=57.456; 95%CI: 4.154-794.79) and presenting with VA less than 20/40 (odds ratio=43.81; 95%CI: 2.184-878.71) were also found as high risk factors for poor final VA. At the last follow-up examination, 67.9% of eyes had VA of 20/40 or better.

CONCLUSION: IU is frequently seen at the beginning of the fourth decade of life. The disease is most commonly idiopathic in adult Turkish patients. Patients with severe vitritis at presentation and patients with frequent recurrences are at high risk for poor visual outcome.