Increased corneal thickness in active Behcet's disease

PURPOSE. To measure central corneal thickness (CCT) in patients with Behcet's disease (BD), particularly in the active disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS. We measured CCT by ultrasound pachymetry in 64 patients with Behcet's disease and in 20 healthy controls. Forty-one of the patients with BD had ocular involvement and 23 none; 19 of the 41 with ocular involvement were in an active period and 22 had inactive disease. RESULTS. The mean CCT in the group with active ocular involvement was significantly higher (589 +/- 27 mum) than in the control group (553 +/- 21 mum) (p = 0.003), the group with inactive ocular involvement (560 26 mum) (p < 0.001), and the group with no ocular involvement (558 +/- 25 mum) (p < 0.001). After appropriate treatment of patients with active ocular involvement, the mean CCT returned nearly to normal (563 +/- 20 mum) and the difference from controls was not significant. There was no significant difference for the mean CCT between controls and the patients with no ocular involvement or with inactive ocular involvement. CONCLUSIONS. Behcet's patients with active ocular involvement have a thicker CCT than patients with inactive ocular involvement. There was no difference in CCT between controls and patients with no ocular involvement. The CCT of patients with active ocular involvement returned to nearly normal after treatment. CCT must be taken into account when developing a managing and following approach for Behcet's patients with active ocular involvement.