The NEI intramural clinical research program includes study of the evaluation and treatment of children with uveitis. Childhood uveitis is distinct from adult disease in the specific disease entities which predominate, the course (may be more aggressive than in adults) and range of appropriate therapies and children present unique challenges to treatment of ocular inflammatory disease including amblyopia risk and growth retardation as a complication of corticosteroid treatment. Few studies have comprehesively addressed pediatric uveitis to quantify the problem, describe the proportion of affected children with visual impairment and blindness or identify prognostic factors and ascertain the children most at risk for poor outcome. Ongoing clinical studies include the evaluation and treatment of children with uveitis, with a specific protocol (05-EI-0208) to evaluate the safety and explore the efficacy of a novel approach using daclizumab (anti-IL-2R Mab)treatment for anterior uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, a particularly severe disease and the most common systemic disease associated with pediatric uveitis.
| Nikolov, Nikolay P; Smith, Janine A; Patronas, Nicholas J et al. (2006) Diagnosis and treatment of vasculitis of the central nervous system in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus. Nat Clin Pract Rheumatol 2:627-33; quiz 634 |
| Smith, Janine A; Thompson, Darby J S; Whitcup, Scott M et al. (2005) A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-masked clinical trial of etanercept for the treatment of uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 53:18-23 |
