Children with uveitis should be followed up for cataracts, reported a Taiwanese research team on the back of a retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Network Open.
A total of 22,687 paediatric patients with uveitis and 22,687 without uveitis were enrolled in the study. The non-uveitis cohort consisted of randomly selected control patients matched by age, sex, race and ethnicity, and specific comorbidities, reported the team from China Medical University Hospital, Taiwan.
A Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed an approximate 8% incidence of cataracts among those with uveitis over the 20-year period, versus a 0-1% incidence among those without uveitis. The study also showed an elevated cataract risk across age groups 0 to six years and 13 to 18 years, in both females and males, Asian, Black or African American and White ethnicities, and patients with medical comorbidities of asthma and juvenile arthritis. A history of steroid eye drops in children with uveitis was associated with a nearly 30-fold increased risk of cataracts, compared with a 16-fold increased risk for those with no history of steroid eye drop use, said the team.
"The main point we want doctors to take away from our study is the heightened awareness of cataract risk among children with uveitis," said Dr Chun-Ju Lin and co-author Dr Alan Hsu in an interview with MedPage Today.
