OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical picture and outcome of uveitis in a series of 207 patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). METHODS: Retrospective study (1988-2001) analyzing 207 patients with diagnosis of AS according to the modified New York criteria. All patients were submited to complete clinical (axial and peripheral involvement, heel enthesopathies, extra-articular manifestations) and radiological (sacroiliac, lumbar, dorsal and cervical spine) investigation, HLA-B27 evaluation (and respective alleles, whenever possible), were searched. These data were compared with the occurrence of uveitis during the follow-up of the AS patients. RESULTS: Thirty patients (14.5%) presented 55 episodes of acute unilateral anterior uveitis. Twenty seven patients had active articular disease at the moment of the uveitis crisis, while three patients were inactive. One patient, in treatment of lung tuberculosis, presented a single episode of posterior uveitis. Among the uveitis in AS patients, there was predominance of male sex (82.6%), Caucasoid race (77.8%), adult-onset AS (83.1%), positive HLA-B27 (79.2%) and absence of familial history of AS (84.5%). There was statistical association between uveitis and juvenile-onset AS (p = 0.0094) and achillean (p = 0.0003) and plantar (p = 0.0067) enthesopathies. No patient presented severe ophthalmologic sequelae of uveitis. Sulfasalazine (1 to 2 g, daily) was prescribed to 16 patients, for a minimum period of six months. CONCLUSIONS: Acute anterior uveitis was common in the follow-up of AS patients in this casuistic, associated to the juvenile-onset of the disease and to the enthesophatic involvement of the lower limbs.
ankylosing spondylitis; uveitis; HLA-B27; enthesopathies