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INTRODUCTION: Scientific evidence of the effectiveness of the tumor necrosis factor inhibitor adalimumab (ADA) in pediatric patients with non-infectious non-anterior uveitis is still limited. The aim of this study is to investigate the therapeutic role of ADA in a cohort of pediatric patients with non-anterior uveitis. METHODS: This is an international multicenter study analyzing real-life data referred to pediatric patients treated with ADA for intermediate uveitis/pars planitis, posterior uveitis and panuveitis. Data were drawn from the AutoInflammatory Disease Alliance (AIDA) registry for patients with uveitis. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients (36 affected eyes) were enrolled, and all patients benefited from ADA administration. In detail, 11 patients (19 affected eyes) did not experience further ocular inflammation after ADA introduction; 10 cases (17 affected eyes) showed a significant clinical improvement consisting of a decrease in severity and/or frequency of ocular relapses. The number of ocular flares dropped from 3.91 to 1.1 events/patient/year after ADA introduction (p = 0.0009); macular edema and retinal vasculitis were respectively observed in 18 eyes and 20 eyes at the start of ADA and in 4 eyes and 2 eyes at the last assessment. The mean daily glucocorticoid dosage significantly decreased from 26.8 ± 16.8 mg/day at the start of ADA to 6.25 ± 6.35 mg/day at the last assessment (p = 0.002). Intermediate uveitis/pars planitis (p = 0.01) and posterior uveitis (p = 0.03) were more frequently observed in patients with full response to ADA; panuveitis (p = 0.001) was significantly more frequent among patients continuing to experience uveitic flares. This could be related to a higher use of systemic glucocorticoids (p = 0.002) and conventional immunosuppressants (p = 0.007) at the start of ADA when treating intermediate uveitis/pars planitis. Regarding the safety profile, only one adverse event was reported during ADA treatment, consisting of the development of generalized adenopathy. CONCLUSIONS: ADA proved to have an effective therapeutic role in all pediatric patients with non-anterior uveitis enrolled in the study. An overall glucocorticoid-sparing effect was observed despite the severity of cases enrolled. A more aggressive treatment of panuveitis and posterior uveitis at start of ADA could increase the likelihood of full response to therapy.
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OBJECTIVES: To describe the epidemiology of non-infectious uveitis (NIU) in two tertiary referral rheumatology units in Central and Southern Italy. METHODS: Two hundred and seventy-eight consecutive NIU patients (417 eyes) evaluated between January 2016 and January 2017 were enrolled. Collected data were analysed in accordance with the primary anatomic site of inflammation, clinical course, and laterality. RESULTS: The mean age at NIU onset was 36.92±18.30 years with a female-to-male ratio of 1.34:1. Anterior uveitis (AU) was identified in 151 (54.32%), posterior uveitis (PU) in 67 (24.10%), intermediate uveitis (IU) in 5.40% and panuveitis (PanU) in 16.19% patients. Bilateral involvement was identified in 50% of our cohort. Uveitis was acute in 33.81% of patients, while 24.46% and 41.73% had a chronic and recurrent course, respectively. Gender and laterality did not influence the anatomical pattern, while disease course was significantly more acute or chronic in AU (p<0.05) and chronic in IU (p<0.05). An associated systemic disease was identified in 116 patients (41.73%). Twenty-seven patients (9.7%) had a specific isolated eye disease, 135 patients (48.56%) had idiopathic NIU. Uveitis associated with a systemic disease was significantly bilateral (p=0.01) and acute or chronic (p<0.0001), while the isolated form showed an association with chronic course (p<0.0001) and unilaterality (p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The most common anatomic pattern of NIU has been AU, followed by PU, PanU and IU. A systemic disease (mainly Behçet's disease, ankylosing spondylitis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis) has been recognised in a fair proportion of the entire cohort. The rheumatologist should remain a central professional figure in the multidisciplinary team dealing with intraocular inflammation on a daily basis.