Ocular Manifestations in Rheumatic Diseases

For the purposes of determining the prevalence of ocular complications in inflammatory rheumatic diseases, the following search terms were used: conjunctivitis, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, xerophthalmia, uveitis, eye hemorrhage, optic neuritis, papilledema, orbital disease, retinal artery/vein occlusion, macular edema, retinitis, chorioretinitis, scleritis, iridocyclitis, choroid hemorrhage, blindness and amaurosis fugax.

These terms were searched in the context of a corresponding inflammatory disease on Medline, Cochrane and Web of Science from their inception (1966, 1991 and 1990 respectively) until the point of study completion.

Studies were included if they provided numerical data of the prevalence or incidence of ocular manifestations in an inflammatory rheumatic disease. Studies were excluded if they were review articles, case reports where all patients experienced the same ocular comorbidity, if different comorbidities were not grouped independently, and if the study reported on fewer than 20 patients. When the same study cohort was used in more than one analysis, the most recent or largest sample-size study was included. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist was used to assess the quality of cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies.