Defining outcome measures in juvenile idiopathic arthritis associated uveitis by a systematic review analysis: do we need a consensus?

BACKGROUND: Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis associated Uveitis (JIA-U) represents its most frequent extra-articular manifestation and the main cause of childhood uveitis in in developed countries. The broad variety of outcome measures utilized makes the comparison of the disease course, risk for complications, impairment in visual function, and responses to treatment quite difficult. Our aim was to summarize evidence regarding the current availability of outcome measures in JIA-U. METHODS: A systematic review between January 2000 and December 2018 was performed to identify studies investigating outcome measures used in JIA-U. RESULTS: The initial search identified 8254 articles of which 89 were potentially eligible. After the full text revision, a total of 27 studies, including 2 RCTs, were included. Among these studies 12 outcome measures for JIA-U use have been identified (grade of cells in the AC, grade of flare in the AC, VA, amblyopia, structural complications, use and sparing of oral corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs, surgery requirement, biomarkers, bilateral disease, JIA persistence, quality of life assessments, uveitis subtype). As regards primary outcome measures, 44% among studies included one or more variables related to disease activity (i.e. grade of flare, grade of cells); 56% included visual function performance (i.e. visual acuity); 68% (17/25) included one or more variables of disease-associated tissue damage or complications (i.e. cataract, amblyopia); 24% included disease features (i.e. bilateral disease; uveitis subtype); 44% included laboratory features (i.e. biomarkers); 8% included JIA features (i.e. persistence of disease); 12% included quality of life (i.e. EYE-Q); 44% included management (i.e. use and sparing of oral corticosteroids and other immunosuppressive drugs; surgery requirement). CONCLUSIONS: Our systematic review surveys the heterogeneity around outcome measures related to JIA-U in children, even in RCTs. It does not provide the solution to overcome the heterogeneity in uveitis studies, but it does provide an estimate of the scale of the problems and provides data to inform this important debate; highlighting the requirement to obtain a new consensus regarding a common approach to identify suitable and efficient outcome measures in JIA-U.