Measurement of Contrast Sensitivity in Patients with Behçet's Disease without Ocular Involvement.

PURPOSE: To evaluate contrast sensitivity in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) without ocular involvement.

METHODS: The study group was composed of 47 BD patients (20 to 50 years of age) who did not have ocular involvement. The control group was composed of 47 normal volunteers who were similar to the study group in terms of age and gender. No participants in this study had any ocular or systemic pathologies except for BD. The contrast sensitivity measurements were performed using the Functional Acuity Contrast Test under photopic conditions, and the results were compared between the two groups.

RESULTS: The mean age of the BD patients and control subjects was 34.5 ± 9.7 and 33.2 ± 7.6 years, respectively. The mean disease duration of the BD patients was 5.5 ± 6.4 years. There was a statistically significant decrease at five spatial frequencies (A, 1.5; B, 3; C, 6; D, 2; and E, 18 cycles per degree) in patients with BD compared with control subjects ( p < 0.001, p = 0.004, p = 0.002, p < 0.001, and p = 0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: The contrast sensitivity of BD patients without ocular involvement was lower than that of the control group. Further studies seem mandatory to confirm our results.