Joining ophtalomologists and rheumatologists: international conference on the eye in inflammatory rheumatic disorders

Inflammatory rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, connective tissue diseases, and vasculitis, are autoimmune conditions that with variable frequency present ocular complications such as sicca syndrome, cheratoconjunctivitis, uveitis. These extra-articular complications cause often permanent ocular damages that lead to severe visual acuity reduction with important repercussions on the patient quality of life. The quality of management of patients with rheumatic diseases complicated by ocular inflammatory involvement is currently negatively influenced by the fact that rheumatologists and ophthalmologists often take care of these patients separately without sharing common diagnostic and therapeutic protocols. MEETING TOPICS - Keratoconjunctivits sicca: causes and clinical features. - Primary Sjogren syndrome: diagnosis and therapy. - Dry eye and cheratitis: therapeutic approach. - Conjunctive and sclera involvement in inflammatory rheumatic diseases. - Conjunctivitis, episcleritis and scleritis: clinical manifestations and diagnosis. - Pediatric uveitis. - Classification, epidemiology and immunogenetic background of uveitis. - Uveitis in rheumatic diseases. - Pathogenesis of non-infectious anterior uveitis. - Immune mechanisms and cytokine network in intermediate and posterior uveitis. - Pathology of uveitis. - Rheumatoid arthiritis. - Spondyloarthritis. - Differences between HLA-B27 positive and negative anterior uveitis. - Granulomatous uveitis. - Behçet’s disease and its ocular complications. - The eye in systemic vasculitis. - Idiopathic uveitis. - Recent diagnostic strategies in uveitis. - Recent advances in the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis, connective tissue diseases, spondyloarthropathy and vasculitis. - Uveitis traditional therapy and its complications. - Biologics for the treatment of uveitis and new therapeutic options for autoimmune uveitis. - Uveitis surgery. In this conference, experienced rheumatologists and ophthalmologists will present the most updated evidence on epidemiology, clinical features, diagnostic tools, and complications of the different disorders. Moreover, the traditional and the new therapeutic opportunities offered by biologics will be discussed in terms of efficacy and safety. In addition, a consistent series of selected difficult case presentations will enrich the conference sessions: each case will be commented by an expert discussant in the field and by all attendees in an open discussion. We believe this meeting would constitute an useful step to address the state of art in the field and to promote the interaction between two different specialties allowing to improve the quality of care and the patient outcome.