Association of ocular manifestation and disease activity among Filipinos with systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Objective: To determine the distribution of ophthalmologic manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Filipinos and correlate them with disease activity. Methods: SLE patients seen at the Rheumatology Section of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) underwent complete work-up to determine disease activity and referred for a comprehensive ocular evaluation at the Department of Ophthalmology. One ophthalmologist performed all ocular examinations. The findings were correlated to disease activity using the chi-square test. Results: Seventy-eight (78) patients diagnosed with SLE were included in the study. Ninety-eight percent (98%) were female. The mean age of the study population was 31.73±9.58 years. The mean duration of the disease was 3.63±3.70 years. The mean disease activity index was 10.36±8.35. Most of the patients (84.4%) had no ocular complaints at the time of examination. Posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC) was the predominant ocular finding in patients with no disease activity, occurring in 14.3% of patients. PSC was also the most common ocular finding in patients with mild to moderate disease activity (21.4%) and lupus retinopathy (16.7%) in those with greater disease activity. Conclusions: Ocular manifestations among Filipinos with SLE include lupus retinopathy, optic atrophy, glaucoma, periorbital edema, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, and posterior subcapsular cataract. PSC was the most common ocular finding in patients with mild to moderate disease activity and lupus retinopathy in those with greater disease activity