Visual prognosis of Behçet's uveitis patients in China and its associated factors.
Optic nerve atrophy strongly associated with poor visual outcomes in Behçet's uveitis
Visual prognosis of Behçet's uveitis patients in China and its associated factors.
Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic, relapsing, multisystem inflammatory disorder, with ocular involvement being a major cause of irreversible visual impairment.
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 153 Chinese patients (268 eyes) with BU at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from February 2003 to February 2023.
Among the cohort, 77.8% were male, and bilateral involvement occurred in 84.3%.
Panuveitis was the predominant form (90.3%), and cataract (64.9%) and macular edema (63.1%) were the most common complications.
At final follow-up, 25.4% of eyes had BCVA <20/200.
Kaplan-Meier analysis showed cumulative risk of severe visual loss of 3.5% at 1 year, 11.0% at 2 years, 19.2% at 5 years, and 41.4% at 10 years.
In this Chinese cohort with BU, irreversible ocular structural damage, particularly macular damage and optic nerve atrophy, was the primary determinant of long-term visual outcomes. Systemic disease severity had limited predictive value.
Despite improvements compared with historical data, these findings highlight the critical importance of early recognition and effective management of posterior segment inflammation to prevent permanent visual impairment.