Development of Posterior Uveitis in Behçet Syndrome Patients with Vitreous Cells at Baseline

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The prognostic importance of vitreous cells (VC) in patients with Behçet syndrome (BS) is unknown. We aimed to determine the frequency of developing posterior uveitis (PU) and any additional risk factors associated with the development of PU in BS patients with VC at diagnosis.

Methods

The charts of 572 consecutive BS patients who were registered between 2010 and 2012 were reviewed. Among the patients with a follow-up of ≥2 years, we included 110 patients with VC in one or both eyes and 147 patients without any eye findings in both eyes at baseline and compared them for the development of PU.

Results

Among the 110 included patients with VC, 61 had VC in both eyes, 34 had VC in only one eye, and 15 had VC in one eye and PU in the other eye. There was anterior uveitis (AU) in addition to VC in the same eye in 13 patients at baseline. PU developed in 24 (22%) of these patients during a mean follow-up of 1.9 ± 1.1 years. This was significantly more frequent than the 147 patients without any eye findings at baseline, among whom there were only 2 patients who developed PU (p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that having AU in addition to VC in the same eye (OR, 5.03, 95% CI; 1.37–18.47) was an independent risk factor for the development of PU in patients with VC.

Conclusion

Careful follow-up is required for patients with VC at diagnosis, since 22% developed PU within 2 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Behçet syndrome
• eye involvement
• immunosuppressive
• uveitis
• vitreous cell

Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to Prof Yilmaz Ozyazgan who was one of the members of Behçet’s Disease Center, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa.

Disclosure statement

All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. D.U has received honorariums for presentations from Abbvie and fees from Amgen as a consultant and advisory committee member. V.H has received consultation fees from Abbvie, Novartis, Pfizer, and Roche. S.N.E has received honorariums for presentations from UCB Pharma, Roche, Pfizer and Merck Sharp Dohme. G.H has received research grant, lecture fees, and fees for serving on an advisory board from Celgene, received consulting fees from UCB Pharma, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, lecture fees from Novartis, Abbvie, Amgen, and UCB Pharma. No other disclosures were reported.

Data sharing statement

All data relevant to the study are included in the article, and data are available upon reasonable request.

Ethics

This study was conducted in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles. Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine (374902/2022). Informed consent was not required given the retrospective nature of the study design.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.