A Clinical Survey of Uveitis in HTLV-1 Endemic Region

Purpose: To investigate a clinical survey of uveitis in southern Kyushu of Japan, where human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and toxoplasmosis is highly endemic. Methods: The clinical records of patients with uveitis between 1975 and 2007 at Miyata Eye Hospital were reviewed. Results: A total number of 1338 patients (2012 eyes), consisting of 526 men and 812 women with mean age of 50.5 years old, were analyzed. The most common clinical entity was HTLV-1 uveitis (17.1%), followed by Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (9.9%), sarcoidosis (7.2%), toxoplasmosis (7.1%), Behcet's disease (4.3%) and others. Unclassified uveitis comprised 41.1% in the series. Anterior uveitis was seen in 30.8%, intermediate uveitis in 17.3%, posterior uveitis in 9.3%, and pan-uveitis in 42.6%. Conclusions: HTLV-1 uveitis and toxoplasmosis were the major clinical entities in southern Kyushu of Japan. This relates to the high seroprevalence of the infectious agents in this region of Japan.