Peripheral ulcerative keratitis is a serious eye disorder that involves inflammation and ulceration of the cornea (the clear layer in front of the iris and pupil) that often occurs in people who have systemic rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Symptoms include blurred vision, increased sensitivity to bright light, and a sensation of a foreign object in the eye.
Doctors diagnose peripheral ulcerative keratitis based on the appearance of the cornea in someone who has a systemic rheumatic disorder.
Doctors treat the damaged cornea and give medications to suppress the immune system.
An Inside Look at the Eye
Peripheral ulcerative keratitis is probably caused by an autoimmune reaction. In a systemic rheumatic disorder, antibodies or cells produced by the body attack the body’s own tissues. Many such disorders affect connective tissue in a variety of organs. Connective tissue is the structural tissue that gives strength to joints, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. The systemic rheumatic disorders that occur with peripheral ulcerative keratitis include rheumatoid arthritis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and relapsing polychondritis.
Peripheral ulcerative keratitis also may be caused by an infection.
Symptoms of Peripheral Ulcerative Keratitis
People develop blurred vision, increased sensitivity to bright light, and a sensation of a foreign object trapped in the eye. The ulcer is located in the margin of the cornea and is usually oval in shape.
Diagnosis of Peripheral Ulcerative Keratitis
A doctor's evaluation
Sometimes culture
The diagnosis of peripheral ulcerative keratitis is suspected when the doctor sees an affected cornea in a person who also has a severe and/or long-standing systemic rheumatic disease.
If doctors suspect an infection, such as bacteria, fungi, or herpes simplex virus, is the cause of peripheral ulcerative keratitis, they scrape the ulcer and eyelid margins for a sample. The sample is then grown in a laboratory (cultured) to identify the organism.
Treatment of Peripheral Ulcerative Keratitis
Medications that suppress the immune system
Doctors may also fill the ulcer with a special material (called tissue adhesive) and then cover the area with special contact lenses to control inflammation. Alternatively, doctors may surgically repair the cornea with a partial thickness corneal transplant.
Prognosis for Peripheral Ulcerative Keratitis
Without treatment, about 40% of people who have a systemic rheumatic tissue disease and peripheral ulcerative keratitis die (mostly due to a heart attack) within 10 years of developing peripheral ulcerative keratitis. With treatment, about 8% of people die within 10 years. The eye problem itself is not the cause of death; it is the underlying systemic rheumatic disorder's effect on the whole body.
