La Revue de médecine interne
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Review
[Therapeutic strategy for the treatment of non-infectious uveitis proposed by an expert panel].
Conventional immunosuppressive drugs, anti-TNF alpha and other biotherapies used in clinical practice are capable of controlling non-infectious anterior uveitis, posterior uveitis and panuveitis. The present work has been led by a multidisciplinary panel of experts, internists, rheumatologists and ophthalmologists and is based on a review of the literature. In case of corticodependency or sight-threatening disease, conventional immunosuppressive drugs (methotrexate, azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil) and/or anti-TNF alpha (adalimumab, infliximab) are used to achieve and maintain remission. ⋯ Other biologics, especially tocilizumab, are showing promising results. Local treatments (corticosteroids, sirolimus etc.) are adjuvant therapies in case of unilateral inflammatory relapse. Therapeutic response must be evaluated precisely by clinical examination and repeated complementary investigations (laser flare photometry, multimodal imaging, perimetry, electroretinography measures).
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Ocular disease in Behçet's disease is frequent and may be associated with a poor functional prognosis. Uveitis is the most common ocular manifestation in Behçet's disease and represents a diagnostic criterion of the disease. The ocular involvement is inaugural of the disease in 20% of the cases or may develop 2 to 3 years after the beginning of the extraocular signs. ⋯ Posterior segment involvement requires the use of corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, primarily azathioprine. This treatment does not appear to be sufficient for severe uveitis with reduced visual acuity or retinal vasculitis that requires anti-TNF α or interferon α. Therapeutic strategies such as TNF-alpha blockers have dramatically improved the visual prognosis of patients with intraocular inflammation related to this chronic and potentially blinding condition.
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Sarcoidosis is one of the leading causes of inflammatory eye disease. Any part of the eye and its adnexal tissues can be involved. Uveitis and optic neuropathy are the main manifestations, which the internists face. ⋯ Regarding systemic sarcoidosis, infliximab and adalimumab have been successfully used for the treatment of refractory or sight-threatening disease. Optic neuropathy often affects women of African and Caribbean origin. Some authors recommend that patients be treated with high-dose corticosteroids and concurrent immunosuppression from the onset for this manifestation, which may be associated with a poorer outcome.
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Fertility preservation is routinely performed in cancerology but less systematically used in the field of immune diseases, even though the use of gonadotoxic treatments in young patients may be required and even though the disease itself can alter fertility. This review aimed to clarify the indications and methods of fertility preservation in this context. Cyclophosphamide is the only immunosuppressive drug requiring fertility preservation in women. ⋯ If the treatment has to be started in an emergency, if ovarian hyperstimulation/oocyte retrieval is contraindicated or if the patient refuses this option, cryopreservation of ovarian tissue or GnRH agonists could be proposed. For men, the accepted method is sperm cryopreservation. For prepubertal boys, the cryopreservation of spermatogonia after testicular biopsy is still experimental.