Purpose: To analyze the clinical patterns and systemic associations of ocular inflammation from a 10-year registry in Taiwan.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 1404 patients diagnosed with uveitis, scleritis, and uveitis masquerade syndromes (UMS) at a tertiary referral center from 2013 to 2023. The Standardization of Uveitis Nomenclature (SUN) criteria were assessed for real-world applicability.
Results: This registry included cases with uveitis (n = 1,254, 89.3%), scleritis (n = 91, 6.5%), and UMS (n = 59, 4.2%). Among uveitis group, anterior uveitis (AU) was the most common (68.9%), including 41.9% cases belongs to acute anterior uveitis (AAU). In AAU cases, a high HLA-B27 positivity rate of 68.3% was observed. Of AU cases tested with aqueous polymerase chain reaction (PCR), 46.4% were positive, most commonly for CMV. Notably, 20.3% of CMV AU cases required repeat taps for diagnosis. Pediatric ocular inflammation (n = 46) was predominantly AU (71.7%), with a low association with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) (4.3%). The leading three noninfectious panuveitis causes were VKH disease (4.1%), sarcoidosis (3.5%), and Behçet's disease (1.2%). Among scleritis, 13.2% were associated with rheumatological disease, which all preceded ocular manifestations. Overall, 49.6% met SUN criteria.
Conclusion: This cohort revealed several distinctive features of ocular inflammation in Taiwan, including high HLA-B27 positivity rate in AAU, diagnostic challenges in CMV anterior uveitis, low systemic association in pediatric uveitis and scleritis, a non-low prevalence of sarcoidosis, and milder Behçet's disease presentations. The 49.6% SUN classification rate underscores the need for ongoing real-world data updates to refine classification systems.
Keywords: Classification; epidemiology; ocular inflammation; systemic; uveitis.