Classification Criteria for Syphilitic Uveitis

Ocular vs neurosyphilis. are they the same? A guide to investigation and management

This article reviews key concepts in the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis and management of ocular syphilis. It is not a systematic review or meta-analysis, but highlights the critical clinical features and investigations in patients with ocular syphilis. It reviews the overlap and interplay between ocular and neuro syphilis and provides practical guidance to diagnose and manage patients with ocular syphilis.

Diagnosis and treatment of syphilitic uveitis: Taiwan experts consensus

A recent resurgence in the incidence of syphilis has sparked a new interest in this old disease. Syphilitic uveitis remains a challenging disease, among the variable syphilis infections, due to the diagnostic complexity and the wide clinical manifestations. Here, we provide recommendations regarding clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment for patients with syphilitic uveitis in Taiwan based on an expert meeting and consensus from experienced uveitis specialists.

Anterior Non-Necrotizing Scleritis with Active Uveitis in Cases of Ocular Syphilis

PURPOSE

To study clinical characteristics and management outcomes of cases of ocular syphilis co-presenting with scleritis and active uveitis.

METHODS

A retrospective analysis of cases diagnosed with ocular syphilis between January 2020 and December 2023 was conducted at a tertiary eye care centre. Clinical records, investigations, and outcomes were reviewed to identify cases with scleritis with active uveitis. Demographic data, clinical features, treatment modalities, and resolution patterns were analyzed.

RESULTS

Among the 135 eyes of 95 cases of ocular syphilis studied, scleritis with uveitis was observed in 3.70% of eyes (five eyes). All cases with scleritis and uveitis were unilateral and male, with ages ranging from 32 to 61 years. Concurrent features included placoid chorioretinitis, retinal vasculitis, and anterior uveitis. Misdiagnosis with subsequent oral steroid therapy precipitated scleritis as an exacerbation in two cases. Three cases, which were previously undiagnosed, were found to be HIV-positive. Scleritis manifested as anterior, non-necrotizing inflammation, often accompanied by chemosis, and responded rapidly to antibiotic and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory therapy. Scleritis resolution preceded that of chorioretinitis and retinal vasculitis.

CONCLUSIONS

Non-necrotizing anterior scleritis with chemosis can be a rare presentation of active syphilitic uveitis. Large placoid chorioretinitis lesions, preceding inadvertent oral steroid and/or undiagnosed HIV status were the possible risk factors for the development of concurrent scleritis.

Clinical Insights: Antimicrobial Therapy for Infectious Uveitis

Infectious uveitis is a major global cause of vision impairment. Despite the eye's immune privilege, afforded by the blood-ocular barrier that restricts microbial entry, several pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites can still infiltrate and cause ocular infections and complications. Clinicians often encounter significant challenges in treating infectious uveitis due to limited or ineffective treatment options. Modern molecular techniques and imaging can aid in diagnosing and assessing intraocular infections. Various antimicrobial therapies exist, spanning topical and systemic treatments, but these are constrained by issues like drug concentration, penetration, effective duration, toxicity, and side effects. Treatment approaches also differ based on the infection's etiology. This review provides recent updates on antimicrobial therapies from a clinical perspective, covering topical, systemic, and regional treatments for infectious uveitis.

Syphilis for dermatologists: Current concepts

Dermatologists are familiar with the classic aspects of syphilis. Our objective in this update is to display novel features of sexually acquired syphilis, its pathophysiology, natural history, atypical clinical variants, skin of color, clinical pearls, and prospects. Textbook knowledge, congenital syphilis, epidemiology, and historical data are excluded.

The role of a multicentre data repository in ocular inflammation: The Ocular Autoimmune Systemic Inflammatory Infectious Study (OASIS)

In the current literature, clinical registry cohorts related to ocular inflammation are few and far between, and there are none involving multi-continental international data. Many existing registries comprise administrative databases, data related to specific uveitic diseases, or are designed to address a particular clinical problem. The existing data, although useful and serving their intended purposes, are segmented and may not be sufficiently robust to design prognostication tools or draw epidemiological conclusions in the field of uveitis and ocular inflammation. To solve this, we have developed the Ocular Autoimmune Systemic Inflammatory Infectious Study (OASIS) Clinical Registry. OASIS collects prospective and retrospective data on patients with all types of ocular inflammatory conditions from centers all around the world. It is a primarily web-based platform with alternative offline modes of access. A comprehensive set of clinical data ranging from demographics, past medical history, clinical presentation, working diagnosis to visual outcomes are collected over a range of time points. Additionally, clinical images such as optical coherence tomography, fundus fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography studies may be uploaded. Through the capturing of diverse, well-structured, and clinically meaningful data in a simplified and consistent fashion, OASIS will deliver a comprehensive and well organized data set ripe for data analysis. The applications of the registry are numerous, and include performing epidemiological analysis, monitoring drug side effects, and studying treatment safety efficacy. Furthermore, the data compiled in OASIS will be used to develop new classification and diagnostic systems, as well as treatment and prognostication guidelines for uveitis.

Computational methods applied to syphilis: where are we, and where are we going?

Syphilis is an infectious disease that can be diagnosed and treated cheaply. Despite being a curable condition, the syphilis rate is increasing worldwide. In this sense, computational methods can analyze data and assist managers in formulating new public policies for preventing and controlling sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Computational techniques can integrate knowledge from experiences and, through an inference mechanism, apply conditions to a database that seeks to explain data behavior. This systematic review analyzed studies that use computational methods to establish or improve syphilis-related aspects. Our review shows the usefulness of computational tools to promote the overall understanding of syphilis, a global problem, to guide public policy and practice, to target better public health interventions such as surveillance and prevention, health service delivery, and the optimal use of diagnostic tools. The review was conducted according to PRISMA 2020 Statement and used several quality criteria to include studies. The publications chosen to compose this review were gathered from Science Direct, Web of Science, Springer, Scopus, ACM Digital Library, and PubMed databases. Then, studies published between 2015 and 2022 were selected. The review identified 1,991 studies. After applying inclusion, exclusion, and study quality assessment criteria, 26 primary studies were included in the final analysis. The results show different computational approaches, including countless Machine Learning algorithmic models, and three sub-areas of application in the context of syphilis: surveillance (61.54%), diagnosis (34.62%), and health policy evaluation (3.85%). These computational approaches are promising and capable of being tools to support syphilis control and surveillance actions.

Challenges and management of childhood non-infectious chronic uveitis

INTRODUCTION

Childhood uveitis is a sight-threatening condition, because if not properly recognized and treated can lead to several ocular complications and blindness. It represents a real challenge not only from an etiologic/diagnostic point of view, but also for management and therapy.

AREAS COVERED

In this review we will discuss the main etiologies, the diagnostic approach, risk factors associated to childhood non-infectious uveitis (cNIU), and the difficulties in eye examination in childhood. Moreover, we will discuss the treatment of cNIU in term of therapeutic choice, timing of initiation and withdrawal.

EXPERT OPINION

Identification of specific diagnosis is mandatory to prevent severe complications, thus a thorough differential diagnosis is essential. Pediatric eye examination may be extremely challenging due to the scarce collaboration, but novel techniques and biomarkers will help in identify low grade of inflammation, eventually modify long-term outcomes. Once identified the appropriate diagnosis, recognition of children who may benefit of a systemic treatment is crucial. What, When and how long are the key questions to address in this field. Current evidence and future results of ongoing clinical trials will help in driving treatment. A proper ocular screening, not only in the context of systemic disease, should be discussed by experts.

Artificial intelligence in uveitis: A comprehensive review

Uveitis is a disease complex characterized by intraocular inflammation of the uvea that is an important cause of blindness and social morbidity. With the dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning integration in healthcare, their application in uveitis creates an avenue to improve screening and diagnosis. Our review identified the use of artificial intelligence in studies of uveitis and classified them as diagnosis support, finding detection, screening, and standardization of uveitis nomenclature. The overall performance of models is poor, with limited datasets and a lack of validation studies and publicly available data and codes. We conclude that AI holds great promise to assist with the diagnosis and detection of ocular findings of uveitis, but further studies and large representative datasets are needed to guarantee generalizability and fairness.

Stepwise approach for fundus imaging in the diagnosis and management of posterior uveitis

An array of retinochoroid imaging modalities aid in comprehensive evaluation of the immunopathological changes in the retina and choroid, forming the core component for the diagnosis and management of inflammatory disorders such as uveitis. The recent technological breakthroughs have led to the development of imaging platforms that can evaluate the layers of retina and choroid and the structural and functional alteration in these tissues. Ophthalmologists heavily rely on imaging modalities such as dye-based angiographies (fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography), optical coherence tomography, fundus autofluorescence, as well as dye-less angiography such as optical coherence tomography angiograph,y for establishing a precise diagnosis and understanding the pathophysiology of the diseases. Furthermore, these tools are now being deployed with a 'multimodal' approach for swift and accurate diagnosis. In this comprehensive review, we outline the imaging platforms used for evaluation of posterior uveitis and discuss the organized, algorithmic approach for the assessment of the disorders. Additionally, we provide an insight into disease-specific characteristic pathological changes and the established strategies to rule out disorders with overlapping features on imaging.

The standardisation of uveitis nomenclature (SUN) project

The uveitides are a collection of over 30 diseases characterised by intraocular inflammation. Previous work demonstrated that the agreement among uveitis experts on diagnosis was modest at best with some pairs of experts having chance alone agreement on selected diseases. The Standardisation of Uveitis Nomenclature (SUN) is a17-year collaboration among experts in uveitis, ocular image grading, informatics, and machine learning to improve clinical and translational uveitis research. The SUN "Developing Classification Criteria for the Uveitides" project used a rigorous, multi-phase approach to develop classification criteria for 25 of the most common uveitic diseases. The project's phases were: (1) informatics; (2) case collection; (3) case selection; (4) machine learning; and (5) consensus review and publication. The results were classification criteria with a high degree of accuracy (93.3%-99.3% depending on anatomic class of the uveitis), the goal of which is to form the basis for future uveitis research.

Clinical features and incidence of visual improvement following systemic antibiotic treatment in patients with syphilitic uveitis

To describe the clinical features, longitudinal pattern, and incidence rate of improvement of visual acuity (VA) following antibiotic therapy in patients with syphilitic uveitis. A total of 36 patients were included in this retrospective study from 2009 to 2020. The longitudinal patterns of mean VA values during follow-up were analyzed using a linear mixed model. Most patients were men with HIV coinfection (81%) and presented with panuveitis (49%). The mean VA at baseline improved from 0.97 to 0.39 logMAR at 6 months and remained stable thereafter. The cumulative incidence of VA ≥ 20/25 achieved by 2 years was 70%. Receiving antibiotic therapy within four weeks of the onset of ocular symptoms (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 3.4, P = 0.012), absence of HIV coinfection (aHR 8.2, P < 0.001), absence of neurosyphilis (aHR 6.5, P = 0.037), better presenting VA (aHR 5.0, P = 0.003), and intermediate uveitis as opposed to panuveitis (aHR 11.5, P = 0.013) were predictive of achieving VA ≥ 20/25. Men with HIV coinfection represented the majority of our patients. Visual outcomes, in response to antibiotics, were favorable. Delayed treatment, poor presenting VA, presence of HIV coinfection, and concomitant neurosyphilis decreased the likelihood of VA restoration.

Intermediate Uveitis: A Review

PURPOSE

This review aims to provide an update on the clinical presentation, etiologies, complications, and treatment options in intermediate uveitis (IU).

METHODS

Narrative literature review.

RESULTS

IU affects all age groups with no clear gender predominance and has varied etiologies including systemic illnesses and infectious diseases, or pars planitis. In some instances, IU may be the sole presentation of an underlying associated condition or disease. Management of IU and its complications include administration of corticosteroids, antimetabolites, T-cell inhibitors, and/or biologics, along with surgical interventions, with varying degrees of effectiveness across literature. In particular, increasing evidence of the safety and efficacy of immunomodulatory agents and biologics has seen greater adoption of these therapies in clinical practice.

CONCLUSIONS

IU is an anatomical description of uveitis, involving intraocular inflammation of the vitreous, peripheral retinal vasculature, and pars plana. Various treatment options for intermediate uveitis are currently used in practice.

Evaluation of the SUN Classification Criteria for Uveitides in an Academic Uveitis Practice

PURPOSE

To evaluate the new Standardization of Uveitis Nomenclature (SUN) classification criteria for uveitides by applying them to patients in an academic uveitis practice.

DESIGN

Evaluation of classification criteria.

METHODS

The charts of all patients attending the uveitis service at the University of Colorado Hospital between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2020, were reviewed. Patients with scleritis, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid, and peripheral ulcerative keratitis were excluded. We attempted to classify each patient's uveitis using the SUN classification criteria. Classification attempts were made within the relevant anatomical or infectious categories for their pathology but did not necessarily have to match their clinical diagnosis by a uveitis specialist. We recorded whether classification was possible as well as their clinical diagnosis by a uveitis specialist.

RESULTS

All patients attending the uveitis clinic at our academic institution between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2020, were reviewed. Of the 1143 patients with uveitis, 572 (50.0%) had a disease that was not listed in the SUN classification system, and so no attempt to classify these patients was possible. Of the remaining 571 patients, 522 (91.4%) were able to be classified by SUN and in 492 (94.3%) of the 522 cases, their SUN classification matched their clinical diagnosis by a uveitis specialist.

CONCLUSIONS

Half of the patients at an academic uveitis practice had a disease for which no SUN classification criteria existed. In cases where classification by SUN could be attempted, the system performed well and generally agreed with their clinical diagnosis.

The Next Steps in Ocular Imaging in Uveitis

PURPOSE

To describe the future steps and advances in the field of ocular imaging in uveitis.

METHODS

Narrative review.

RESULTS

There have been numerous advances in the field of imaging in uveitis in the past decade. Advanced techniques of imaging of the vitreous, vitreo-retinal interface, retinochoroid, and the sclera can provide significant information that helps in understanding the disease pathogenesis and manifestations. Imaging also helps in establishing a diagnosis in challenging cases, along with the laboratory and other assays. Notable developments in ocular imaging include wide-field and ultra-wide field imaging (including angiographies), automated quantification of the retinochoroidal vasculature using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography, quantification of vitreous cells, and intraoperative use of imaging in uveitis, among others.

CONCLUSIONS

We have summarized several technological achievements in ocular imaging in the field of uveitis and provided insights into the potential future developments.

Artificial Intelligence and Imaging Processing in Optical Coherence Tomography and Digital Images in Uveitis

INTRODUCTION

Computer vision, understood as the area of science that trains computers to interpret digital images through both artificial intelligence (AI) and classical algorithms, has significantly advanced the analysis and interpretation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in retina research. The aim of this review is to summarise the recent advances of computer vision in imaging processing in uveitis, with a particular focus in optical coherence tomography images.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Literature review.

RESULTS

The development of computer vision to assist uveitis diagnosis and prognosis is still undergoing, but important efforts have been made in the field.

CONCLUSION

The automatising of image processing in uveitis could be fundamental to establish objective and standardised outcomes for future clinical trials. In addition, it could help to better understand the disease and its progression.

Pyramidal Inflammatory Deposits of the Retinal Pigment Epithelium and Outer Retina in Ocular Syphilis

PURPOSE

To evaluate the role of OCT in the diagnosis of uveitis secondary to syphilis.

DESIGN

Consecutive, retrospective case series.

PARTICIPANTS

All patients 18 years of age or older with ocular syphilis from 2 tertiary referral centers.

METHODS

All patients who were diagnosed with intermediate uveitis, posterior uveitis, or panuveitis secondary to syphilis were included in the study (40 patients representing a total of 62 eyes) to identify important imaging features to aid in diagnosis. Patients underwent confirmatory serologic testing, OCT imaging, and dilated examination by a uveitis specialist.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Hyperreflective retinal lesions on OCT.

RESULTS

The mean age of the study population was 42.9 ± 12.16 years. Forty-five percent of the eyes included in this study harbored hyperreflective pyramidal lesions of the outer retina and retinal pigment epithelium on OCT. Fifty-four percent of eyes with these imaging findings did not show a placoid retinal lesion on examination. Sixty-eighty percent of the described outer retinal lesions on OCT resolved after treatment for syphilis. Visual acuity ranged from normal (20/20) to no light perception, with a mean of 20/43 at diagnosis, and improved significantly to a mean visual acuity of 20/26 after treatment (P < 0.05). Vision-threatening complications were seen in less than 5% of eyes and included both treatable and irreversible causes of vision loss, including retinal detachment, cystoid macular edema, and optic neuropathy.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients treated for uveitis secondary to syphilis achieve good visual recoveries. Outer retinal lesions seen on OCT are common and can serve as an additional imaging finding of the disease.

[Development of classification criteria for uveitis by the standardization of uveitis nomenclature (SUN) working group]

BACKGROUND

The standardization of uveitis nomenclature (SUN) working group is an international expert committee, which follows the aim to develop a standardized and internationally recognized terminology for the field of uveitis. This appears to be important in view of the demand for evidence-based medicine, especially for relatively rare diseases such as uveitis.

METHODS

A databank of > 4000 uveitis patients was compiled using formal consensus techniques, for whom a majority consensus was previously achieved in the diagnosis. The patient data were analyzed within the subclasses of uveitis and divided into a training set and a validation set. Multinomial logistic regressions with LASSO regularization were carried out on the training set with machine learning (ML). The accuracy of the rules that were developed to express the criteria of ML, were assessed by a masked observer in a random sample of 10%.

RESULTS

The estimations of total accuracy according to the uveitis classes in the validation set were high for all forms of uveitis: anterior uveitis 96.7% (95% confidence interval, CI 92.4-98.6%), intermediate uveitis 99.3% (95% CI 96.1-99.9%), posterior uveitis 98.0% (95% CI 94.3-99.3%), panuveitis 94.0% (95% CI 89.0-96.8%) and infectious posterior uveitis/panuveitis 93.3% (95% CI 89.1-96.3%).

CONCLUSION

Classification criteria are presented, which show a high degree of accuracy (low misclassification rates) and are therefore suitable for future clinical and translational research.