Birdshot research papers

The papers listed here (and in the birdshot research projects section) give you more information about possible treatments for birdshot.

They may be useful

  • To persuade you, if you are not already under the care of a uveitis specialist, to get yourself to a uveitis specialist who treats others with birdshot and who will oversee your treatment.
  • To help you see the benefits of taking what seem to be very scary medicines in order to preserve your sight.
  • To give you some idea of the treatments which work, treatments in the pipeline and the exciting world of ophthalmology research.

BUS is extremely grateful for the valuable assistance received from Dr Graham Wallace and Dr Robert Barry of Birmingham University, UK, in selecting articles for this section on relevant birdshot research.

We have divided up the research papers into several topic areas which are accessed via the drop-down menus below. Where we can link into the whole paper, we have done so, but if that is not possible, the link is to the abstract. If you are interested in reading the full paper and it is not available, please get in touch and BUS will try to assist.

BUS will continue to add links to research papers, so we would be grateful for suggestions for other papers that should be included here.

Birdshot treatment overviews

▫A review and update on orphan drugs for the treatment of noninfectious uveitis

January 2017

Caiyun You, Haitham F Sahawneh, Lina Ma, Buraa Kubaisi, Alexander Schmidt, C Stephen Foster

A review and update on orphan drugs for the treatment of noninfectious uveitis (full-text)

Pharmacotherapy for uveitis: current management and emerging therapy

September 2014

Robert J Barry, Quan Dong Nguyen, Richard W Lee, Philip I Murray, Alastair K Denniston

Pharmacotherapy for uveitis: current management and emerging therapy (full-text)

Birdshot chorioretinopathy: current knowledge and new concepts in pathophysiology, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment

May 2016

Evangelos Minos, Robert J Barry, Sue Southworth, Annie Folkard, Philip I Murray, Jay S Duker, Pearse A Keane, Alastair K Denniston

Birdshot chorioretinopathy: current knowledge and new concepts in pathophysiology, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment (full-text)

Interventions for the treatment of uveitic macular edema: a systematic review and meta-analysis

June 2013

Rushmia Karim, Evripidis Sykakis, Susan Lightman, Samantha Fraser-Bell

Interventions for the treatment of uveitic macular edema: a systematic review and meta-analysis (full-text)

Local therapies for inflammatory eye disease in translation: past, present and future

August 2013

Shenzhen Tempest-Roe, Lavnish Joshi, Andrew D Dick, Simon RJ Taylor

Local therapies for inflammatory eye disease in translation: past, present and future (full-text)

 

Birdshot overviews

▫Birdshot retinochoroidopathy differences in clinical characteristics with early and late age onset

April 2016

Sukhum Silpa-Archa, Jennifer H. Cao, Sutasinee Boonsopon, Joan Lee, Janine M. Preble, Stephen Foster

Birdshot retinochoroidopathy differences in clinical characteristics with early and late age onset (abstract)

▫Poor prognostic factors in patients with birdshot retinochoroidopathy

November 2016

Sukhum Silpa-Archa, Joan J Lee, Sutasinee Boonsopon, Marisoll T Lizarraga, Janine M Preble, Dusi Sujirarat, Pranav Patel, C Stephen Foster

Poor prognostic factors in patients with birdshot retinochoroidopathy (abstract)

▫Birdshot retinochoroidopathy: prognostic factors of long-term visual outcome

October 2016

Sara Touhami, Christine Fardeau, Antoine Vanier, Olivia Zambrowski, Rafaela Steinborn, Claude Simon, Sophie Tezenas du Montcel, Bahram Bodaghi, Phuc Le Hoang

Birdshot retinochoroidopathy: prognostic factors of long-term visual outcome (abstract)

 

Quality of life research

There are several ‘quality of life’ questionnaires in existence that attempt to measure the effects of sight loss on mood and health. However, these questionnaires are not really relevant to the variable condition of birdshot uveitis with its many problems we face day to day, especially at the time of a flare or because of treatment side-effects. With the help of psychologist John Barry and ophthalmology consultant Professor Will Ayliffe, BUS designed a questionnaire for our membership to trial. In 2012, nearly 200 of our members completed this birdshot quality of life questionnaire as part of a study carried out by BUS to validate it. Below are links to the two papers that were published about this work:

Validation of a brief questionnaire measuring positive mindset in patients with uveitis

March 2014

John A Barry, Annie Folkard, William Ayliffe

Validation of a brief questionnaire measuring positive mindset in patients with uveitis (full-text)

▫Development and validation of quality-of-life questionnaires for birdshot chorioretinopathy

July 2014

John A Barry, Annie Folkard, Alastair K Denniston, Eileen Moran, William Ayliffe

Development and validation of quality-of-life questionnaires for birdshot chorioretinopathy (full-text)

September 2020

  • Creating a Health Utility for Birdshot Chorioretinopathy

Anisha Sekaran, Mohith Shamdas, Robert J Barry, Alastair K Denniston and Philip I Murray

Creating a Health Utility for Birdshot Chorioretinopathy

 

The patient voice

“The patient is speaking”: discovering the patient voice in ophthalmology  

June 2017

Samera Dean, Jonathan M Mathers, Melanie Calvert, Derek G Kyte, Dolores Conroy, Annie Folkard, Sue Southworth, Philip I Murray, Alastair K Denniston

“The patient is speaking”: discovering the patient voice in ophthalmology (full-text)

 

Challenges in uveitis research

Controversies in the pharmacological treatment of uveitis

July 2015

Robert J Barry, Alastair K Denniston

Controversies in the pharmacological treatment of uveitis (abstract)

Heterogeneity of primary outcome measures used in clinical trials of treatments for intermediate, posterior, and panuveitis

August 2015

Alastair K Denniston, Gary N Holland, Andrej Kidess, Robert B Nussenblatt, Annabelle A Okada, James T Rosenbaum, Andrew D Dick

Heterogeneity of primary outcome measures used in clinical trials of treatments for intermediate, posterior, and panuveitis (full text)

Updated May 2023