Demographic and Clinical Features of Pediatric Uveitis at a Tertiary Referral Center in Iran

Diagnosis of Ocular Toxocariasis by Serum and Aqueous Humor IgG ELISA

Purpose

Ocular toxocariasis (OT) is a worldwide ocular parasitic infection and is especially sight-threatening in children. Because of the clinical manifestation diversity, OT has frequently been misdiagnosed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of anti-toxocara immunoglobulin G (IgG) in intraocular fluid (IF) and serum in OT.

Methods

IF and serum were collected from patients with clinically diagnosed OT and non-OT uveitis. The level of anti-toxocara IgG was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data were statistically analyzed in anti-toxocara IgG and the Goldmann–Witmer coefficient (GWC) between groups. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC ROC) was performed to assess the diagnostic value of serum and IF anti-toxocara IgG and the GWC.

Results

A total of 290 participants, 128 (44.1%) with OT and 162 (55.9%) with non-OT uveitis, were included in this study. The default serum anti-toxocara IgG cutoff value of 11 U had 72.1% sensitivity and 95.5% specificity. With the optimized cutoff value of 8.2 U, the AUC was 0.886 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.830–0.929, P < 0.0001), sensitivity increased to 80.2%, and specificity was 94.0%. With an IF anti-toxocara IgG cutoff value of 1.8 U, the AUC was 0.934 (95% CI = 0.892–0.963, P < 0.0001), sensitivity was as high as 88.4%, and specificity was 96.4%.

Conclusions

Our study proposes novel diagnostic cutoff values of serum and IF anti-toxocara IgG for OT, which are 8.2 U and 1.8 U, respectively.

Translational Relevance

This study will improve the accuracy of diagnosis in patients with OT.

Genetic aspects of idiopathic paediatric uveitis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis in Chinese Han

Background

Idiopathic paediatric uveitis (IPU) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis (JIA-U) are the two most common entities in paediatric uveitis. This study addressed the possible association of IPU and JIA-U with genes that had been shown earlier to be associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Methods

We carried out a case-control association study involving 286 IPU, 134 JIA-U patients and 743 healthy individuals. A total of 84 candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 60 genes were selected for this study. The MassARRAY platform and iPLEX Gold Genotyping Assay was used to genotype 83 candidate SNPs and the remaining SNP (rs27293) was analysed using the TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assay.

Results

No evidence was found for an association of the candidate polymorphisms tested with IPU. Six SNPs (PRM1/rs11074967, JAZF1/rs73300638, IRF5/rs2004640, MEFV/rs224217, PSMA3/rs2348071 and PTPN2/rs7234029) showed an association with JIA-U (p<1.0×10⁻²).

Conclusion

Our findings showed associations of six SNPs (PRM1/rs11074967, JAZF1/rs73300638, IRF5/rs2004640, MEFV/rs224217, PSMA3/rs2348071 and PTPN2/rs7234029) with JIA-U. No association was detected between the 84 tested SNPs and IPU.