Impact of Inflammation and Treatment on Self-reported Quality of Life in Patients with Non-acute Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease (VKHD)

Aims: To evaluate associations between vision-related (VR-) and health-related (HR-) QoL metrics and inflammation and treatment in non-acute VKHD patients. Methods: Cross-sectional study in a tertiary center in Sao Paulo, Brazil with 22 patients with non-acute VKHD followed prospectively for >= 12 months since acute disease onset, with systematic evaluation and predefined treatment protocols. VR- and HR-QoL aspects were assessed by VFQ-25 and SF-36 questionnaires, respectively. Associations between the questionnaire's subscale item scores with inflammation and systemic medical therapies were assessed. Results: After generalized linear model analysis, worse VA, severe fundus changes, fluctuation of VA and fluctuation of anterior chamber cells impacted negatively on VR-QoL items. Higher cumulative total dose of corticosteroids and use of immunosuppressive therapy impacted negatively on both questionnaires. Conclusion: Worse VA, clinical inflammation and systemic treatment have a significant impact on VR- and HR-QoL questionnaires. Subclinical choroidal inflammation did not seem to impact QoL.