Visual prognosis and risk factors for korean patients with behcet uveitis.
OBJECTIVE
Visual prognosis was evaluated in Korean Behcet uveitis patients. The study investigated factors associated with poor visual outcome, and the effect of various treatments on recurrence-free duration.


METHODS
A retrospective analysis was undertaken on 99 consecutive Behcet uveitis patients (168 eyes). Visual prognosis was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and Cox's proportional hazard regression analysis was used to identify risk factors.


RESULTS
Visual acuity at the first visit (<0.5), presence of vasculitis, male gender, and posterior/panuveitis type were associated with poor visual prognosis. Visual acuity at the first visit was found to be the most significant risk factor (hazard ratio = 7.392, p = 0.007). Analysis of 9 different treatment modalities showed patients treated with steroids had longer recurrence-free periods than those not treated with steroids (p = 0.0053, t test).


CONCLUSIONS
Whilethe long-term visual prognosis for Behcet uveitis may be affected by many factors, the initial visual acuity appears to be the most significant. Treatments involving steroids appear to decrease the frequency of uveitis recurrence.
Cho
Young Jae
YJ
Siloam Eye Hospital , Institute of Vision Research, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Kim
Wook Kyum
WK
Lee
Jong Hyun
JH
Byeon
Suk Ho
SH
Koh
Hyoung Jun
HJ
Kwon
Oh Woong
OW
Lee
Sung Chul
SC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014605:Uveitis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*
D005938:Glucocorticoids