Ocular involvement is associated with HLA-B51 in Adamantiades-Behçet's disease

To evaluate the association of HLA-B51 and ocular involvement in Adamantiades-Behçet's disease.

We retrospectively analysed all patients with Adamantiades-Behçet's disease examined in our Department of Ophthalmology since 1982. All patients fulfilled the criteria of the International Study Group for Behçet's disease. We included 140 patients (63 female and 77 male) with a mean follow-up of 6.4 years.

The mean age at the first manifestation was 23 years; full disease was noted at 32 years. The mean age at the time of eye involvement was 30 years. Most of the patients were of Turkish (n=73) or German (n=34) origin. A total of 56% patients developed eye involvement. Forty-nine out of 76 HLA-B51-positive patients (64.5%) and 26 out of 60 HLA-B51-negative patients (43.3%; P=0.014) developed ocular involvement.

More than the half of the patients with Adamantiades-Behçet's disease evaluated in our department developed ocular involvement. There was a statistically significantly higher frequency of HLA-B51 in these patients.