Ocular Manifestations in Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis Patients from Saudi Arabia

Eye and/or orbit involvement occurs in Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) patients frequently. The aim of our study was to describe the clinical manifestations, therapy and outcome of ocular involvement in our GPA patients. A retrospective study was conducted including patients with GPA who followed up in Rheumatology clinics during 1990-2016 at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh. Information relating to demographics, ocular manifestations, laboratory findings, therapy and outcome of GPA patients were noted. Ocular involvement was detected in 9 (39.1%) of the 23 GPA cases identified. The mean age of ocular GPA patients was 51.8 (range 27 - 62) years, the mean age at onset of disease was 39.6 (range 11 - 57) years and the mean duration of disease was 9.0 (range 2 - 19) years. Concomitant ear, nose, throat and sino-nasal manifestations occurred with ocular symptoms in 77.8% GPA patients. The most frequent manifestations were, eye pain (66.7%), scleritis/episcleritis (55.6%), eye redness and itching (55.6% each). Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) were positive in 88.9% patients, 55.6% had c-ANCA and 33.3% had p-ANCA. Infections were observed in 22.2% of patients, which included pneumonia in one patient and esophageal candidiasis and bacterial meningitis in another. All patients received oral prednisolone, 44.4% received intravenous cyclophosphamide, 22.2% refractory cases received rituximab doses and the disease outcome was good. Comparison of ocular GPA with non-ocular GPA patients showed that 77.8% of ocular GPA patients had concomitant sino-nasal symptoms compared to 42.9% in non-ocular GPA patients and 22.2% of the ocular GPA patients had renal involvement compared to 64.3% in non-ocular GPA patients (p = 0.049). We found that the frequency of ocular manifestations in our GPA patients was similar to reports elsewhere, and the most frequent symptom was eye pain and scleritis/episcleritis.