Uveitis and spondyloarthritis: prevalence and relationship with joint disease

Purpose: To study uveitis prevalence in the local population with spondyloarthritis and its temporal relationship with joint complaints.

Methods: We reviewed seventy-seven charts of spondyloarthropathy patients from the rheumatology clinic of the "Hospital Universitário Evangélico de Curitiba" for spondyloarthritis class, patients' sex and age, occurrence of uveitis and its location and relationship between the first episode of uveitis and initial joint complaints.

Results: Uveitis was found in 12 of 77 patients (15.6%) which was anterior in 83.3% of the cases, without preference for spondyloarthropathy class (p=0.72) and patients' sex (p=0.74). In patients with reactive arthritis, the mean time between uveitis appearance and joint complaints was 4.04 months and in ankylosing spondylitis 73 months (p=0.009).

Conclusion: Spondyloarthropathy patients have uveitis that is anterior in most of the cases and that appears earlier in reactive arthritis than in ankylosing spondylitis.