TO ASSESS THE PATTERN AND FREQUENCY OF LUNG DISEASES IN PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH UVEITIS

Uveitis describes a group of intraocular inflammatory disorders affecting a part or whole of the iris, ciliary body, and choroid that may be related to infective or non-infective etiological factors.It may affect other tissues in the eye as well which includes the retina (uveoretinitis), retinal blood vessels (retinal vasculitis), the vitreous (vitritis), and the optic nerve (papillitis)and is the third leading cause of preventable blindness globally. Uveitis may be a reflection of other systemic diseases as well and may be the first manifestation of such systemic diseases.The present observational study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in north India over six months.The details regarding clinical findings and demographic data were recorded in a structured proforma.General physical examination,examination of the chest with special attention to rule out any lesion of lungs, and other laboratory and radiological investigations which were essential for aetiological diagnosis and treatment were performed. Statistical analysis was performed using a software package of statistical analysis (SPSS for Windows, version 19, Armonk, NY: IBM Corp).We found in our study that the majority (50.0%) of the patients were in the age group of 31-50 years,with 77% of patients being males.66.6% of cases were diagnosed with Chronic Uveitis including those with recurrent attacks,and the remaining 33.3% had Acute Uveitis. The cases were further divided into Anterior Uveitis, Posterior Uveitis, and Pan Uveitis. Mantoux skin test was also advocated.It was observed that out total patients,20.0% of patients had an induration of +15mm on the Mantoux test.The current study concluded that several factors,including the patient's age, other related systemic conditions, and overall health,can affect the pattern of uveitis.