Take a look at the eyes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A novel point of view

Abstract

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a connective tissue disease that involves multiple organs. Ocular structures and visual pathways can be affected in SLE because of disease-related eye involvement or drug toxicity. All the part of the eye may be interested with an external, anterior involvement, responsible of the dry eye disease, or posterior (retina) and neuro-ophtalmic manifestations. Retinopathy in SLE is suggestive of high disease activity being a marker of poor visual outcome and prognosis for survival. The early diagnosis is thus the key to a better management and successful treatment. Antimalarial drugs are the cornerstone of SLE treatment and recently the American Academy of Ophthalmology updated the recommendations for hydroxychloroquine retinal toxicity screening which includes the standard automated visual fields and the spectral domain optical coherent tomography. More recently new imaging techniques have been investigated to assess retinal function and reveal subclinical eye involvement. In this review we focalize on the evidence of eye manifestations in SLE, the eye drug toxicity related to antimalarial agents and steroids, and the methods employed for the eye screening. Moreover, the future perspectives on new techniques, such as the optical coherence tomography angiography, are dissected giving new insights on evaluation of microvasculature of the retina and choroid in SLE.

Keywords: Eye; Hydroxychloroquine; Retina; Spectral Domain-Optical Coherence Tomography; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.