Abstract
Purpose:
Behcet's disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder affecting various tissues in the human body. The uveal tract is the major ocular target involved during disease activations. Cornea seems to be affected during anterior uveitis attacks but the long term effect of chronic inflammation on cornea especially on the endothelium is a challenge. This study aimed to examine the effect of Behcet's disease on the cornea endothelium.
Methods:
Thirthy-two patients followed with Behcet’s disease in the uvea service were enrolled. Healthy control subjects were chosen from the hospital staff with normal ocular examination findings. The endothelial cell density (ECD), polymegathism (%) and pleomorphism (%) of 63 eyes of 32 subjects were compared with 56 eyes of 28 age- and sex-matched control subjects. The in-vivo confocal microscope “ConfoScan 4.0" Nidek Co Ltd, Osaka, Japan) was used to capture endothelial images. Measurements were performed in any activity level. Statistical comparisons were made with values obtained from automated morphometric analysis done for cell size, cell density and cells.
Results:
The Behcet’s group consists of 22 males and 10 females with a mean age of 36.44±12.54 years. The 18 males and 9 females in the control group had a mean age of 37.55±12.34 years. There were no differences according to age and gender among the Behcet’s and healthy control groups (p=0.61 and 0.8, respectively). The mean ECD was 2474.46 ±238.13 cells in Behcet’s group and 2584.28±158.38 cells in the control group. There was a significant difference in mean ECD among the Behcet’s and control group (p<0.005), whereas no differences could be found in respect to polymegathism and pleomorphism (p>0.05).
Conclusions:
The chronic intraocular inflammation in various degrees in Behcet's disease seems to be associated with decreased ECD. This result clearly demonstrates that specular or confocal microscopy screening should be carried out for the patients scheduled for intraocular surgery.
Keywords: 745 uvea •
481 cornea: endothelium •
557 inflammation