Alert: your child's eye problem could be related to juvenile arthritis

Frequency of eye problem in children with juvenile arthritis is started as uveitis , which is due to an immunologic process. This kind of uveitis lasts for months, and without treatment can cause damage to eye, even complications like cataracts & glaucoma.

Mostly eye problems occur much before condition is diagnosed.

Children who have arthritis of four or less than 4 joints have greater risk of developing iritis and one having positive ANA test adds more to the risk, but children with juvenile arthritis who show high fever as first sign have no risk of iritis. Boys with arthritis affected hip & low back pain with positive HLA-B27 (a protein called human leukocyte antigen B27 that is found on the surface of white blood cells) are more at risk of developing iritis with red eye.

Diagnosis

1. For diagnosing iritis, one has to visit an ophthalmologist who will be using slit lamp microscope.
2. To diagnose inflammation of eye, doctor will shine a thin beam at light in one eye at a time with help of microscope.
3. Doctor would also go for visual field examination to check vision.

Examination of Eye

1. It is painless and ophthalmologist will put drops in child's eyes to dilate pupils, to get a clear view inside the eyes.
2. Frequency of eye exams depends on type of juvenile arthritis one has.
3. Usually treatment is prescribing eye drops that contain steroids which are sufficient.