Uveitis

Diagnosis

If your physician suspects you have uveitis, you are likely to be referred to an ophthalmologist (eye specialist), who will give you a thorough eye exam, including:

• Tests of visual acuity, to determine if vision has decreased. This can be as simple as reading an eye chart.

• A funduscopic exam, in which the pupil is dilated (widened) so that the ophthalmologist can look into the eye and see structures at the back of the eye.

• Measures of the pressure inside the eye to make sure it has not reached levels that might be dangerous. This painless test involves an instrument called a tonometer that either blows a puff of air or lightly presses on the surface of the eye and measures how the surface of the eye responds.

• A slit-lamp exam, in which a narrow beam of light is shone into the eye so that a magnifying lens can closely examine the highlighted portion of the eye. Your doctor will use eye drops to dilate the pupil of the eye. A drop of fluorescein dye may be placed in the eye. This dye temporarily stains the surface of the eye and can help to determine which layers of the eye are inflamed.

In addition, your physician probably will ask you about your medical history, and will examine you. Depending on the results, he or she may order blood tests and X-rays (such as a chest X-ray to look for evidence of sarcoidosis). Because uveitis often is associated with a viral infection or an autoimmune disease, other conditions need to be discovered and treated as well.

Expected Duration

With treatment, most people with uveitis will improve within days or weeks. However, the condition may last several months. Chronic (long-term) forms of the disease can be very difficult to cure, and may return. If you have been treated successfully for uveitis, you should expect to have follow-up visits to your doctor every one to six months to make sure that the disease remains stable.