Smoking causes age-related macular degeneration, cataract and thyroid eye disease. Now, researchers at the University of California report that smoking can cause uveitis of the eye too. Results of their findings is published in the March 2010 issue of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. This article tries to gain further insight on this topic.
10 percent of blindness in the United States is caused by this eye inflammation. Most of the time, uveitis has no apparent cause. It targets important structures like the retina, iris in the front of the eye and the light-sensitive tissues. They help focus images and relay them to the optic nerves that are present at the back of the eye.
What Research has to Say on Uveitis of the Eye ?
- Researchers studied the cases of uveitis patients visiting California university between 2002 to 2009.
- The study revealed that smokers were 2.2 times more likely to get this eye inflammation when compared to non smokers.
- Smoking is learnt to cause this inflammation in every location of the eye, including the risks of infectious and non-infectious eye disease types.
- Specifically it was found that smoking caused swelling of the central section of the retina.
- According to the researchers, the compounds in a cigarette smoke stimulate swelling inside the blood carrying vessels in the eye.
- This leads to disruption of the natural protection system of our body, technically called the immune system leading to uveitis.
Symptoms and Treatment of Uveitis of the Eye:
- Eye redness
- Pain and sensitivity to light
- Blurred vision
- Floaters
- Discharge from the eye
- Deep eye pain
- Pruritus
- Decreased visual acuity
- Conjunctival vessel dilation
Pupil dilators and steroids can be used in the form of eye drops to treat this condition. If the inflammation is severe, injections or oral medications can be used. If the complications are in the advanced stage, laser surgery is necessary. When uveitis occurs in the front and middle parts of the eye, diagnosis and treatment are easy. But when the back part of the eye is affected, the treatment is difficult. From the research studies, as it is learnt that smoking can cause inflammation in this part of the eye too, quitting smoking becomes imperative to avoid this inflammation of eye.
