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Prediction of response to treatment in patients with scleritis using a standardised scoring system |
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| Authors: | Peter McCluskey MB BS FRACO FRAGS Denis Wakefield MD FRACP FRCPA |
| Affiliation: | *Laboratory of Ocular Immunology, School of Pathology, University of NSW;Ophthalmology Department, St Vincent's Hospital;Ophthalmology Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia.;Laboratory of Ocular Immunology, School of Pathology, University of NSW;Department of Immunology, Prince of Wales Hospital;Uveitis Research Clinic, Sydney Eye Hospital, Sydney, Australia. |
| Abstract: | Scleritis is a severe chronic inflammation of the eye wall. High-dose corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive drugs are often required to control the inflammatory process. With the development of new and potentially more effective treatment modalities for scleritis has emerged the need for an accurate and reproducible system for quantifying the severity of scleritis and evaluating the response of individual patients to treatment. We have developed a quantitative scoring system, based on common clinical signs of scleritis, and evaluated it in 24 patients with scleritis. Our results indicate that this system is simple, rapid, reproducible and useful in grading the severity of scleritis and in predicting the response of patients to systemic immunosuppressive therapy. |
| Keywords: | Key words: Quantitation scleritis scoring system treatment. |