Autoimmune Complement Fixation Test in Endogenous Uveitis

Abstract

Nowhere in ophthalmology can the diagnostic enthusiast give freer vent to his proclivities than in the pursuit of some infective cause for endogenous uveitis. Unfortunately his work most often terminates in only a presumptive or suggestive etiology. This has led Ashton¹to suspect that we are probably wrong in regarding uveitis as an infective disease and that we should explore other endogenous disturbances, either indirectly related or totally unrelated to infection. Gordon²supports an allergic etiology by contending that antibiotics often fail to control uveitis, while adequate steroid hormone therapy usually produces a favorable response. The collagen diseases, which include rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, have gone through a similar period of disenchantment with infective causes and are now classified as autoimmune diseases, in which the patient becomes sensitized to certain of his own tissues. It is common knowledge that the incidence of uveitis in rheumatoid arthritis