Purpose: We hypothesize that the presence of iris depigmentation is associated with the prediction of cytomegalovirus (CMV) as the etiology of chronic or recurrent anterior uveitis.
Methods: A prospective cohort study on patients with recurrent or chronic anterior uveitis. Pre-operative data on iris depigmentation and corneal endothelial cell densities were compared between eyes with and without CMV.
Results: Forty-one eyes of 38 subjects with a mean age of 61.1 ± 11.2 years old were recruited. Seventeen eyes were positive for CMV. A greater proportion of eyes with CMV showed severe or diffuse iris depigmentation than eyes without CMV, and possessed larger corneal endothelial cells (p = .028). When severe iris depigmentation was present with a reduced endothelial cell density, the positive and negative predictive values were raised to 100.0% and 64.9% from 41.5% and 58.5%, respectively.
Conclusion: Iris depigmentation is a potential clinical biomarker in predicting CMV in chronic or recurrent anterior uveitis.
Keywords: Cornea; cytomegalovirus; endotheliitis; glaucoma; uveitis.