[Quantitative assessment of aqueous flare intensity and cell count in uveitis]

In an attempt to evaluate the validity of the laser flare-cell meter in in iridocyclitis, we conducted a comparative study of slit-lamp examination and flare-cell meter measurements in 251 eyes of uveitis patients. A significant correlation was observed between the two methods both in the measurement of flare intensity (Kendall tau = 0.580, p less than 0.001) and cell count (tau = 0.390, p less than 0.001). However, there were wide variations in grading within groups and large overlaps in scores between groups. These results were thought to be attributable to differences in the two examination methods. Flare-cell meter demonstrated high sensitivity for flare measurements, while there were some cases where low numbers of cells, which could be observed by a slit-lamp, were undetectable by the flare-cell meter. Patients with Behçet's disease were divided into three groups based on the interval from an ocular attack episode. Flare-cell meter examination revealed that flare intensity values remained abnormally high even in patients free from an attack episode for more than six months prior to the examination (p less than 0.001). It was considered that disruption of the blood-aqueous barrier exists permanently in patients with Behçet's disease.