Uveitis and retinitis pigmentosa: relationship or casual association?

The Authors present four cases of patients affected by the association of bilateral Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and uveitis. The diagnoses were performed by familiarity, ophthalmological examination, perimetry, fluorescein angiography and electrophisiological tests. Uveitis, mainly diffuse with retinal vasculitis, was always idiopathic. In two subject aged 21 and 22 years, the onset of bilateral diffuse uveopapillitis preceded that of RP by 6 and 10 years respectively. In the other two patients, aged 27 and 29 years, unilateral severe intermediate uveitis, in one case and bilateral diffuse uveitis, in the other one, were detected 9 and 5 years after RP respectively. The rarity of such association gives the impression of coincidental occurrence of RP and uveitis but the low prevalence of each one ocular disease, other than a likely common pathogenetic involvement, cannot exclude a causal relationship.