Why birdshot retinochoroiditis should rather be called 'HLA-A29 uveitis?

Birdshot retinochoroiditis: the origins of the disease name

Birdshot retinochoroiditis (BRC) is a uveitis predominantly affecting the posterior segment of the eye with dual, independent retinal and choroidal inflammation and almost only seen in Caucasians.12 Ryan and Maumenee first described the bilateral retinochoroidal inflammatory disease in early 1980, reporting on 13 patients.2 These authors called it 'birdshot retinochoroidopathy' because they found that lesions had a pattern comparable to that seen in wounds produced by birdshot shotguns. Later in 1980, Kaplan and Aaberg published a series of four similar cases 'involving a choroidal and retinal pigment epithelium disease not previously described', which they also called birdshot retinochoroidopathy.3 In 1981, Gass described 11 similar cases and called the disease vitiliginous chorioretinitis.4

In these first articles on the disease, clinicians had no choice but to rely on fundus examination and fluorescein angiography (FA)....

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