title: Ocular features of Behcet's disease: an international collaborative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the clinical features of ocular lesions in Behçet's disease in different countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive questionnaire survey was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  25 eye centres in 14 countries returned questionnaires on prevalent cases in 2006. Clinical data were analysed on 1,465 patients with ocular lesions. Recurrent oral aphthous ulcers were reported in 94.5%, skin lesions in 69.5% and genital ulcers in 61.4%. Most of the patients had bilateral and recurrent intraocular inflammation. Poor visual acuity was seen in 18.9% in women, but 24.8% in men (p<0.01). Panuveitis was seen more in men than in women (p<0.01). 23% of the patients had visual acuity equal to or worse than 20/200 at the final visit. The patients with poor vision were more frequently in India, Iran and Japan than in other countries (p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We report the largest contemporary international case series of patients with ocular involvement in Behçet's disease. Panuveitis was significantly more frequent in men than women, and men tended to have a worse visual prognosis. There were some differences in the clinical pattern of Behçet's disease in different countries. Despite modern treatment, the disease still carries a poor visual prognosis with one-quarter of the patients blind.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan. nobukita@med.hokudai.ac.jp
authors.forename: Nobuyoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kitaichi
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Daiju
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: Shigeaki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohno
authors.forename: Miles R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Stanford
authors.forename: Hormoz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000352:Africa, Northern / Q000453:epidemiology; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D001211:Asia, Western / Q000453:epidemiology; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005202:Asia, Eastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007249:Inflammation / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015864:Panuveitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011379:Prognosis; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014792:Visual Acuity