Ocular features of Behcet's disease: an international collaborative study.
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.
Kitaichi
Nobuyoshi
N
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan. nobukita@med.hokudai.ac.jp
Miyazaki
Akiko
A
Iwata
Daiju
D
Ohno
Shigeaki
S
Stanford
Miles R
MR
Chams
Hormoz
H
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