Iris Changes in Patients with Pediatric Behçet’s Disease: A Cross-sectional Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Study

Aim:The study aimed to assess whether pediatric Behet's disease (PBD) eyes with a history of ocular inflammation in remission exhibit residual iris structural changes compared with BD eyes without ocular involvement and also healthy controls. Materials and Methods:Twenty PBD patients without ocular involvement (Group 1), 6 PBD patients with inactive ocular involvement (Group 2), and 24 age-sex-matched healthy controls (Group 3) were included in this study.Their demographic characteristics and the patients' anterior and posterior segment examination findings were recorded.Iris thicknesses at 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm from the pupillary margin in the nasal and temporal areas were measured using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).Iris area measurements in the 3 mm area were evaluated using the ImageJ program.Results: There was no statistical difference between the three groups in terms of their age or gender (p=0.920,p=0.482, respectively).There was no statistically significant difference between the three groups regarding their iris thicknesses at temporal and nasal 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm (p>0.05).The three groups had no significant difference in their temporal and nasal 3 mm area measurements (p>0.05). Conclusion:In PBD eyes with a history of uveitis which were in remission at the time of imaging, iris thickness and area did not differ from those of non-ocular BD eyes or healthy controls.These findings suggest that no persistent iris structural damage is detectable by SD-OCT after the resolution of inflammation, although longitudinal follow-up during both active and inactive phases is warranted.