Acquired syphilis uveitis, due to lack of the characteristic features, presents with various types. The most common type is posterior uveitis and panuveitis, including chorioretinitis, retinal vasculitis, optic nerve retinitis. The diagnosis and assessment of response to treatment depends mainly on the serological diagnostic tests, including nontreponemal and treponemal test. Acquired syphilis uveitis often presents with manifestations similar to various types of uveitis, especially to autoimmune uveitis and other infectious uveitis, so differential diagnosis is important. The gold standard treatment for active syphilitic uveitis is penicillin G, or doxycycline if patient is allergy to penicillin. Clinically misdiagnosis and delayed treatment may result in irreversible visual impairment and severe systemic and eye complications. However such timely treatment always has a good prognosis.
Objective To evaluate the clinical features and treatment outcomes of ocular posterior segment syphilis. Methods The clinical data of 24 patients with active ocular syphilis were retrospectively reviewed. The diagnosis was made first in eye clinic，and verified by treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR). The patients, 17 males and 7 females, aged from 30 to 63 years with an average of 47.6 years. The duration of symptoms ranged from 3 days to 2 years with an average of 5.8 months (le;1 month, 7 cases; 1-3 month, 5 cases; 3-6 months, 5 cases; ＞6 months, 7 cases). There were 18 bilateral cases and 6 unilateral cases. The result of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test was negative for all cases. Twenty-three patients received systemic penicillin therapy and 1 patient was treated with oral erythromycin due to penicillin allergy. Before treatment, the mean visual acuity was 0.17plusmn;0.19，the mean titer of RPR was 1:84。The follow-up period was half a year. Results The major ocular manifestations included bilateral (16 cases) or unilateral (1 case) chorioretinitis, unilateral retinal vasculitis (2 cases), unilateral neuroretinitis (2 cases), and bilateral (2 cases) or unilateral (1 case) optic neuritis. The mean follow-up visual acuity was 0.60plusmn;0.29，the mean follow-up titer of RPR was1:18.8. Some patients had got the diagnosis and prompt treatment at the early stage of the disease and their visual acuity recoveried very well. Conclusions The major manifestion of ocular posterior segment syphilis is chorioretinitis. It is important to consider the possibility of syphilis when patients have inflammation of posterior segment. Prompt serology examination and penicillin treatment are the keys to cure ocular syphilis.
Objective To observe the fundus imaging characteristics of different stages of syphilitic posterior uveitis. Methods Retrospective cases series. Forty-six eyes of 32 patients with syphilitic posterior uveitis were included. There were 14 patients (16 eyes) and 18 patients (30 eyes) were assigned to acute stage group (with the course ＜2 months) and chronic stage group (with the course ≥2 months) respectively. All eyes received the examination of indirect ophthalmoscopy, color fundus photography, fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). All patients received regular anti-syphilitic treatment. Color fundus photography and OCT were followed after treatment. The fundus imaging characteristics of different stages of syphilitic posterior uveitis were observed. Results Indirect ophthalmoscopy and fundus color photography showed that in the acute stage group, there were 3/16 eyes with optic disc edema; 4/16 eyes with a yellowish, placoid lesion involving the macular. There were only some pigment alterations on the fundus after treatment. In the chronic stage group, there were 4/30 eyes with optic disc hyperemia, 3/30 eyes with cystoid macular edema. After treatment, the optic hyperemia vanished gradually, but there were still some pigment alterations. The FFA images of two groups showed various vascular leakages. In the chronic stage group, patients also showed hyper-fluorescence with cystoid macular edema. The patients with course 2 – 3 years have more transmitted fluorescence on FFA. OCT showed that all eyes in the acute stage group had lost the ellipsoid zone, with irregular granular reflectivity of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) layer, 6 eyes with subretinal fluid in the macular. After treatment, the ellipsoid zone and RPE layer structure recovered gradually. In the chronic stage group, all eyes showed widespread loss of the ellipsoid zone, pigment migration and (or) cystoid macular edema. After treatment, the ellipsoid zone showed partial recovery. The outer ellipsoid zone was still discontinuous in patients with long duration. Conclusions Syphilitic posterior uveitis patients generally had normal fundus, but some cases had a yellowish, placoid lesion involving the macular. FFA showed various vascular leakages, and the chronic stage group showed more transmitted fluorescence. The major OCT change was loss of the ellipsoid zone or with subretinal fluid. After treatment, fundus showed no abnormal manifestations except some pigment alterations; the ellipsoid zone structure recovered gradually in acute stage eyes, partially recovered in chronic stage eyes.