Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
Often, the cause of iritis can't be determined. Iritis can be classified as acute when symptoms develop rapidly, or as chronic when symptoms develop gradually and tend to last over a period of weeks to months.
Known causes of iritis include:
- Injury to the eye. Blunt force trauma, a penetrating injury or burn (chemical or thermal) to your eye can cause acute iritis.
- Herpes infection. Infection with herpes zoster — commonly known as shingles — can cause iritis if you have a skin eruption on your face, especially your forehead or cheeks. Other infectious diseases, such as toxoplasmosis, histoplasmosis, tuberculosis and syphilis, may be linked to other types of uveitis.
- Genetic predisposition. People with HLA-B27, a specific alteration of a gene that's essential to immune system function, are more likely to develop certain autoimmune diseases, such as ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriatic arthritis. Acute iritis may occur in these diseases.
- Bechet's disease. An uncommon cause of acute iritis in Western countries, this condition is also characterized by joint problems, mouth sores and genital lesions.
- Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Chronic iritis can develop in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. In cases where the condition is mild and affects only a few joints, iritis may be one of the first indications of the condition. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis more commonly affects girls. Because the two conditions are so commonly associated with each other, doctors often routinely screen for iritis or other types of uveitis in kids with rheumatoid arthritis.
- Posterior uveitis. Inflammation starting in the back part of your eye (posterior uveitis) can have a spillover effect on the parts of the uvea at the front of your eye.
References
- Care of the patient with anterior uveitis. St. Louis, Mo.: American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/documents/CPG-7.pdf. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Cunningham ET Jr. Uveal tract. In: Riordan-Eva P, et al. Vaughan & Asbury's General Ophthalmology. 17th ed. United States: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3091280. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Forster DJ. General approach to the uveitis patient and treatment strategies. In: Yanoff M, et al. Ophthalmology. 2nd ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby, Inc.; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/116823936-3/0/1197/69.html?tocnode=50823224&fromURL=69.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Jacobs DS. Evaluation of the red eye. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Rosenbaum JT. Uveitis: Etiology; clinical manifestations; and diagnosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Rosenbaum JT. Uveitis: Treatment. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
