Purpose: to determine the correlation between the ABO blood groups and Rh factor with non-infectious uveitis.
Methods: prospective, cross sectional study conducted on 175 Egyptian patients diagnosed with non-infectious uveitis. Venous blood sample (2ml) was taken from each patient to recognize the ABO and Rh blood group. Blood grouping results were collected and statistically analyzed.
Results: Most of our uveitic patients were found to have blood group O (34.9%), while other ABO blood groups were represented as following: blood group A in 33.1%, blood group B in 22.3% and blood group AB in 9.7%. Rh factor was positive in 92.6% of the study participants. Most common etiologies of uveitis were Behçet's disease, idiopathic, VKH, JIA and Ankylosing spondylitis in the following percentages: 28%, 21.1%, 21.1%, 13.7%, and 11.4%, respectively. Most Behçet's patients had blood type A+ or O+ (33/49, 67.3%), similar to those with idiopathic uveitis with higher preponderance of blood type A and O (26/37, 70.3%). Also, More than half of JIA cases have associated with blood type A+ and O+ (16/24, 66.7%). On the other hand, VKH patients had a higher prevalence of blood type O and B (27/37, 72.9%). Ankylosing spondylitis cases had nearly equal distribution of different blood type A+, B+, AB+ and O+ (30%, 25%, 20% and 25%, respectively).
Conclusion: Blood group O and A were most commonly associated with non-infectious uveitis. In addition, positive Rhesus factor was strongly associated with such cases.