RESUMO
AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of new therapeutic modalities with the observation period of three years on patients with isolated ocular vasculitis in comparison with ocular vasculitis as a systemic disease. METHODS: The effectiveness of the therapy was assessed based on the changes in visual acuity and degree of ocular inflammation (mild, medium, moderate, severe) with the following parameters: vitreous body cloudiness, blood vessels layering, macula oedema, blood vessels occlusion and new vascularisation RESULTS: New therapeutic modalities resulted in reduction in the number of patients with severe inflammation in the group of isolated ocular vasculitis from 8(13.5%) to 7(12.2%) after three years, while the number of patients with mild inflammation increased from 13(20.7%) to 18 (29.3%) in the same group (p>0.05). The number of patients with severe ocular inflammation in a group of ocular vasculitis as systemic disease increased from 3(16.2%) to 4(21.6%), because of the presence of patients with Behçet's disease. The number of patients with visual acuity less than 0.1 decreased from 11(17%) to 8(13.4%) in a group of patients with ocular vasculitis as systemic disease, which was associated with the presence of Behçet's disease too (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Although the effect of new therapeutic modalities did not result in statistically significant improvement in visual acuity and reducing inflammation, systemic and intravitreal corticosteroids with steroid-sparing immunomodulatory therapy represents effective strategies in forms of isolated ocular vasculitis and ocular vasculitis as systemic disease.