Orbital color Doppler imaging in Behçet's disease with or without ocular involvement.

PURPOSE: To investigate the value of color Doppler imaging (CDI) of orbital vasculature in the assessment of ocular involvement in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) without clinical ophthalmologic abnormalities.

METHODS

CDI of the orbital vessels were performed on 26 eyes of 13 patients who were diagnosed as having BD with ocular involvement (group 1), 65 eyes of 33 patients who had BD without ocular involvement (group 2) and 40 eyes of 20 healthy volunteers (group 3). Peak systolic (PSV) and end-diastolic (EDV) blood flow velocities and resistivity index (RI) measurements were obtained for the ophthalmic artery (OA) and central retinal artery (CRA). The mean velocity of the central retinal vein (CRV) was also measured.

RESULTS

For the OA, PSV and EDVs were significantly lower and RIs were significantly higher in group 2 than in control subjects. In group 1, only the EDVs of OA were significantly lower than in healthy subjects. For the CRA, PSV and EDVs were significantly lower, and RIs were significantly higher in both BD groups than those in group 3. When group 1 and group 2 were compared, the differences between PSV, EDV and RI measurements for the CRA and OA were statistically insignificant. There was no significant difference in blood flow velocity of the CRV between the three groups.

CONCLUSION

Major hemodynamic changes were observed in the ophthalmic vasculature of Behçet's patients with or without ocular involvement by CDI. CDI may detect ocular blood flow alterations before initial clinical manifestations.