Ocular involvement in patients with spondyloarthritis.

Ocular inflammatory diseases can present as isolated conditions but also as part of systemic inflammatory diseases. Anterior uveitis is closely related to SpA and shares the common genetic background of HLA-B27. Other ocular manifestations, such as episcleritis and scleritis, may also occur, although less frequently. Therefore, ocular involvement has been included as one of the important clinical features of SpA in the recently published classification criteria for axial and peripheral disease. However, there are a wide variety of aetiologies for ocular diseases and this must be considered in assessment of SpA.