Leptospirosis as a cause of uveitis

Abstract

To the Editor .—Although Rosenbaum showed clearly that an evaluation for systemic disease in a patient with uveitis is useful, no specific diagnosis could be made in a quarter of his patients. The cause remained undefined in over half the patients reported in another large study. 2 Adding leptospirosis to the list of causes of uveal tract inflammation could perhaps improve the ability to determine a specific cause. This disease remains a major public health problem in parts of the developing world, and is frequently underdiagnosed in the United States: in one series only 17% of 483 proven cases were initially thought to be leptospirosis. 3 The precise incidence of uveitis in leptospirosis is unknown, but has been reported to range from 10% to 44%. 4 The anterior uveal tract is usually affected 4 to 8 months after initial disease symptoms appear, at a time when other clinical features have