Recurring Iritis

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Kerry30
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:27 am

Recurring Iritis

Post by Kerry30 »

Hi, I wanted to introduce myself and maybe see if anyone can give me any info. I'm 30 yrs old and I was diagnosed with Iritis in febuary. It came on all of a sudden and id never even heard of it. I'm currently on my 6th flare up since feb, this doesn't include every time i have one it goes over to the other eye. Each time i have either just maxidex (1st time Predforte) or maxidex and the dilating drops. The last time i had a flare up i was in so much pain i went to A&E as our Eye Hospital A&E here in B'ham UK closes at 7pm and begged them to give me pain relief in tears as they didn't stock steroid eye drops and it was late at night, they couldn't help. I had to wait until the next morning to get help! Worst night of my life! I've had blood tests and they cant find any underlying cause as to why I have this and so suddenly also it just wont go. The most i've been all clear is about 3 weeks. Its really upsetting me now, so what i'm wondering is do you know of anything I can do? Any suggestions at all! Any treatment, anyone i can see? My husband and I also want to start a family but I'm worried about the medication. This is all really new to me and reading a few things on this website has helped because the doctors cant seem to answer my questions so i'm hoping for help here?
Thank you so much.
Mike Bartolatz
Posts: 6595
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 9:58 pm

Re: Recurring Iritis

Post by Mike Bartolatz »

first of all welcome to the group!
there are specialists in the diagnosis and treatment of uveitis. iritis is a form of uveitis known as anterior uveitis or iridocylitis.
because you are a younger individual do you have a history of urinary tract infections? if yes you might see if it is related to a condition known as TINU, which is inflammation of the kidneys along with uveitis. a list of these specialists can be found at http://www.uveitis.org in the patient information section of the site. a site in the UK that you might want to join that has very good support volunteers and which has the top specialist in the UK overseeing content is Oliviasvision.org.uk professor William Ayliffe in London volunteers there. the volunteers can help you get the care you deserve.

your case is pretty chronic and frequently this type of iritis is linked to a systemic disease process whether from a bacteria, virus or autoimmune disease and the specialist can sometimes tell by looking into your eyes as to the type of cells present and determine a possible cause. your family medical history can sometimes help with this too. if it is granulomatus in nature, then sometimes things like sarcoidosis are suspect and sarcoidosis is fairly common in the UK.
forms of arthritis are linked as well. some also have rashes and GI problems associated with them. the HLA B27 gene is the most common link between them and uveitis. these are known as the enteropathic arthropathies and the sero negative spondyloarthropathies composed of ulcertive colitis, crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, reactive arthritis and psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis. there are over 85 different conditions linked to uveitis. because steroids are frequently used to treat this and they have potential to cause cataracts and glaucoma, a steroid sparing approach to treatment is now used. when an inflammatory disease is present often an NSAID such as naprosyn or difusinal help break the recurrent nature of it. when they fail, or if an autoimmune disease is know to be present, then DMARD drugs used to treat many forms of arthritis and inflammatory disease processes are used to retrain the immune system to stop attacking the eyes. a six month trial of NSAID at prescription strength might stop the recurrent nature of the beast. then you would continue at prescription strenght for 2 years while the immune system learn to no longer attack your eyes before slowly tapering off the NSAIDS.

make sure you VERY SLOWLY taper off the steroids as quickly stopping them is often the reason for return of iritis. steroid injections to tissue surrounding your eyes may also stop the recurrent nature of the beast. Oral steroids are also tried in cases like yours but be aware that steroid injections and oral steroids have the potential to cause cataracts to form and for pressure similar to glaucoma to occur. oral steroids can do this and they also have the potential to cause bone density loss and type II diabetes to occur so you would need to we watched for them as well.

please join us in our other forums for other questions that you may have. click on BOARD INDEX at the top left side of this page to be redirected to our list of forums.

wishing you quiet eyes,
Mike
Mike Bartolatz
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