Grading of pars planitis by ultrasound biomicroscopy—echographic and clinical study

Abstract

Objective: To determine the value of high frequency ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) in the assessment of pars planitis, and in particular to correlate UBM findings and ophthalmoscopy findings. Methods: All patients with pars planitis were identified from the uveitis database of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Aberdeen. Fifteen consecutive patients (age 14–52 years) underwent complete ophthalmological examination. UBM was performed at a sound frequency of 50 MHz on 17 eyes of 10 patients to determine the extent of disease. UBM findings were evaluated by two investigators in a blinded fashion and graded from 0 to 3 according to the following grading criteria: 0=no cells, 1=mild cells, 2=marked cells, 3=organization of cells. Opthalmoscopy findings were also graded using the same criteria. UBM and ophthalmoscopy findings were independently graded and compared. Results: We found a good inter-observer correlation for the UBM grading of pars planitis (ρ=0.86). There was no significant difference in the grading of pars planitis by indirect ophthalmoscopy as compared to grading by UBM (P>0.05). Conclusion: UBM appears to be a valuable and reliable diagnostic technique for the evaluation of patients with pars planitis and may be useful especially in patients with media opacities to diagnose and/or monitor efficacy of treatment.