Uveitis

Introduction

An inflammation of the middle skin of the eye (uvea), which in turn is divided into three layers, is called uveitis. Every year 50,000 people fall ill with uveitis anew, and about 500,000 people currently suffer from this dangerous disease. The risk of infection is relatively low, but possible consequential damage of uveitis is a loss of vision, which makes it so dangerous for those affected. Uveitis is often confused with highly infectious conjunctivitis.

Symptoms

Whether one is suffering from uveitis can be seen by the fact that the eye is severely reddened, there is stabbing pain, the eye is watery, vision is blurred, the pupil is constricted and bright light aggravates the symptoms. If the vision is diminishing and there is a permanent visual disturbance with veils or blurred spots, there is most likely already a chronic uveitis.

Causes

Possible triggers for the inflammation of the uvea are bacteria, viruses or fungi. In addition, chronic inflammation in other parts of the body can be the cause of uveitis. These include a rheumatic disease, chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases, an autoimmune disease or acute stress.

In the case of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, uveitis can be an indication of a renewed flare-up of the disease. Stress can bring about various physical and psychological complications. It leads to an activation of different brain regions.

The consequences are muscle tension, hormone release, increased blood pressure, etc. In most cases, acute stress leads to few long-term complications, especially in the eye. But chronic stress, combined with other consequences such as chronically high blood pressure or sugar levels, can lead to long-term damage to the eye.

Uveitis, however, is usually an acute inflammation. Therefore, stress is the trigger of uveitis only in very rare cases. The HLA B27 describes a leukocyte antigen and is located on the surface of human cells.

It has important functions in the immune system. A mutation in the gene of this protein complex is associated with various autoimmune diseases. Those affected have an increased risk of contracting diseases such as Bechterew’s disease, Reiter’s disease or other spondylarthritides.

These diseases are often associated with acute uveitides. However, the association with HLA-B27 has mainly classification purposes. The prognosis of uveitides usually does not change.