Objective: To study the relationship between the structure of macular central fovea and the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) during remission stage of Behcet's disease associated uveitis.
Methods: Retrospective case series studies. The study covered 51 patients (79 eyes) during remission stage of Behcet's disease-associated uveitis from Peking Union Medical College Hospital in a three-year period from January 2012 to January 2015. There were 40 males, 11 females with the average age of 31.5 ± 6.9 years old (ranging from 18 to 46). All the patients received a complete set of ophthalmic examination, including BCVA, intraocular pressure, slit-lamp microscope, ophthalmoscope and frequency domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). All the eyes were divided into 4 groups according to central macular thickness (CMT) (the thick CMT group: CMT ≥ 130 µm; the thin CMT group: CMT < 130 µm) and the existence of ellipsoid zone. Group 1: thick CMT and ellipsoid (+); Group 2: thick CMT and ellipsoid (-); Group 3: thin CMT and ellipsoid (+); Group 4: thin CMT and ellipsoid (-). Sight disparity among multiple groups was tested with Kruskal Wallis, while the difference between two groups was tested with Mann-Whitney U test. Bonferroni correction was conducted when necessary.
Results: The mean CMT was (151.4 ± 62.3) µm in all eyes (43 eyes in thick CMT group, 36 eyes in thin CMT group). According to grouping rule, there were 32 eyes in group 1, 11 eyes in group 2, 2 eyes in group 3 and 34 eyes in group 4. The BCVA of thick CMT group was better than that of thin CMT group (logMAR0.1 and logMAR1.0) (z = -6.88, P < 0.01). In addition, the BCVA of ellipsoid (+) group was better than the ellipsoid (-) group. (log MAR0.1 and log MAR1.0) (z = -6.60, P < 0.01).
Conclusion: Thick CMT and intact ellipsoid zone usually associated with relatively better BCVA in Behcet's disease-associated uveitis patients.