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Title: Sulfasalazine Prevents Flares In Patients With Acute Anterior Uveitis

URL: http://www.jrheum.com/abstracts/abstracts03/1277.html

J Rheumatol 2003;30:1277-1279. "Sulfasalazine Reduces the Number of Flares of Acute Anterior Uveitis Over a One-Year Period"
07/03/2003 09:41:48 AM
By Emma Hitt, PhD

In patients with recurrent acute anterior uveitis (AAU), sulfasalazine treatment appears to reduce the number of flares significantly over a 1-year period. According to the researchers, about one third of patients with uveitis experience acute anterior recurrent uveitis. One previous study suggested that sulfasalazine could prevent recurrent flares in patients with spondyloarthropathies, however the use of sulfasalazine for this purpose has not been well studied. Santiago Muñoz-Fernández, MD, PhD, with the Rheumatology Unit, at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain and colleagues evaluated the efficacy of sulfasalazine in the prevention of these recurrent flares. A total of 394 patients were evaluated and of those, 10 patients met the inclusion criteria (3 or more flares of AAU in the previous year or 2 or more recurrences of uveitis within 3 months before starting the trial). Of the 10 patients, 3 were men, and 7 had some type of spondyloarthropathy (4 ankylosing spondylitis, 1 reactive arthritis, 1 undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy, and 1 inflammatory bowel disease). The researchers report that the mean number of flares in the year prior to sulfasalazine treatment was 3.4 (standard deviation [SD] 0.5), and this was reduced to 0.9 (SD 1.1) in the year of treatment (p = 0.007). Of the patients, 4 had a reduction in the number of flares, 5 patients had no new flares during the year of treatment with sulfasalazine, and 1 did not respond. "Our results show that sulfasalazine seems to reduce the number of flares of acute anterior recurrent uveitis over a one-year period in selected patients with a high number of recurrences," the researchers conclude. They suggest that while further research is needed, patients with AAU and frequent recurrences should be treated with sulfasalazine.

http://www.jrheum.com/abstracts/abstracts03/1277.html

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