clinical patterns of uveitis in an iranian tertiary eye care center

purpose: to analyze the clinical patterns and etiologies of uveitis in isfahan. methods: the records of 2016 patients with uveitis who had been referred to the feiz tertiary eye care center, isfahan, between 1999 and 2013 were classified and analyzed with respect to demographic, clinical, anatomical, and etiological characteristics. results: at the onset of uveitis, the mean patient age was 33.76 years. female to male ratio was 1.2/1.0. anterior uveitis was the most common diagnosis (42.9%) followed by posterior uveitis (21.42%), intermediate uveitis (19.3%), and pan uveitis (16.31%) in descending order. overall, non-infectious causes were more frequent etiology of uveitis (76.5%) as compared to infectious causes. up to 43.89% of the patients had no identified etiologies. the most common known etiology was toxoplasmosis, followed by behcet disease and fuchs’ heterochromic iridocyclitis (fhic). the most common etiology was idiopathic (50%) and fhic (32.8%) in anterior uveitis, toxoplasmosis (91.1%) in posterior uveitis, idiopathic (81.5%) in intermediate uveitis, and behcet disease (48%) and idiopathic (32%) in posterior uveitis. in 15.62% of cases, a systemic disease was diagnosed which included behcet disease (the most common non-infectious systemic disease) and toxoplasmosis (the most common infectious systemic disease). considering the course of uveitis, 49.6% were chronic. in 87.5%, uveitis was non-granulomatous.  conclusion: significant differences were seen in the clinical and etiologic pattern of uveitis in isfahan. for example, a higher frequency of uveitis caused by toxoplasmosis, behcet and fhi was observed. environmental, genetic and geographical factors may contribute to this observed difference.