ASYMPTOMATIC UVEITIS IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES

Uveitis may be an asymptomatic ocular process when it occurs in associ ation with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the freq uency of uveitis in pediatric IBD is not known, as few patients have e ye examinations on a routine basis. Experience with a child with Crohn 's disease, who had asymptomatic uveitis identified by routine screeni ng initiated because of associated arthritis, prompted us to undertake this evaluation. The purpose of this cross-sectional prospective stud y was to ascertain the point-prevalence of uveitis in pediatric IBD pa tients, including 97 with Crohn's disease and 50 with ulcerative colit is. Each child underwent an ophthalmologic assessment, including slit- lamp examination. In Crohn's disease, inflammatory cells and/or flare were observed in the anterior chamber of six (6.2%) patients. These ch anges were mild in all six patients and required no treatment. In the group with ulcerative colitis, there were no cases of asymptomatic uve itis. There was a higher frequency of asymptomatic transient uveitis i n patients with Crohn's colitis (four of 22, 18.2%) than in those of o ther anatomic subgroups (two of 75, 2.7%; p < 0.05). Frequency of uvei tis was also higher in IBD patients having other extraintestinal manif estations (15.0%) than in those without (3.1%; p < 0.10). There was no relationship observed between the activity of bowel disease and prese nce of ocular inflammation.