Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the 2nd Edition of the Special Issue “Clinical Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Uveitis”, which comes as a result of the first edition's success, in which we published eight papers.

For the last few decades, there has been an increasing pace of progress in diagnosis and in new treatment options for patients who are suffering from uveitis.

Uveitis is an inflammation of the uvea. The uvea consists of the middle layer of pigmented vascular structures of the eye and includes the iris, ciliary body, and choroid. Ocular inflammation can be in the form of anterior, intermediate, posterior, or pan-uveitis, as described by the Standardization of Uveitis Nomenclature (SUN) Working Group. It affects approximately 1:4500 people, while occurring most commonly between the ages of 20 and 60, with men and women being affected equally. Even in Western countries, uveitis is estimated to be responsible for approximately 10–20% of blindness. Evidence suggests that early diagnosis and more aggressive therapy improves ocular outcomes.

Several methods can be employed to diagnose uveitis in patients, including microbiological, immunological, imaging and molecular diagnostic testing, e.g., interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) for confirming acute or latent tuberculosis or the spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) including OCT–angiography (OCTA) for imaging the retina, the choroid, and their vasculature.

Immunomodulatory therapy has been associated with the control of inflammation, which is associated with better visual outcomes. Nevertheless, in the last century, visual outcomes were uncertain during treatment with conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (cDMARDs); however, the prognosis has improved dramatically since the FDA approved the first biologic drug in the late 1990s, the TNF-alpha-blocking agent etanercept. The biological (b)DMARDs are a constantly expanding medication class. The inhibitors of other pro-inflammatory cytokines, e.g., the interleukin (IL)-6 blockade with tocilizumab or the B-cell-depleting agent rituximab, also belong to this class. Other new therapeutics that enhance anti-inflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL-10) or block small molecule signaling (phosphodiesterase and tyrosine kinase inhibition) are in development, or in use, for other inflammatory indications.

This Special Issue compiles articles that reflect the current state of the art within this field and are also indicative of some of the anticipated advances in the diagnosis and treatment of uveitis.

Prof. Dr. Nicole Stuebiger
Guest Editor

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• uveitis
• diagnosis
• new diagnostic tests
• imaging
• new treatment strategies
• bDMARDS
• small molecules