THE ROLE OF QUANTITATIVE TC-99(M)-GLUCOHEPTONATE SCINTIGRAPHY IN THE EVALUATION OF ACUTE UVEITIS IN PATIENTS WITH BEHCETS-DISEASE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of quantitative Tc-99m-glucoheptonate (Tc-99m-GH) scintigraphy in the assessment of patients with Behcet's disease who suffered from ocular inflammation (uveitis). The study consisted of 13 patients with uveitis and five control subjects. There were a total of 25 eyes with chronic uveitis. Of these 25 eyes, 10 were in a state of remission, and the other 15 were in an acute phase of the illness. The study was performed by administering 370 MBq (10 mCi) Tc-99m-GH intravenously. Planar images were acquired 6 h later. Eye/scalp indices were quantified by drawing regions of interest (ROIs) around each eye and normalizing the mean counts per pixel by the mean counts in the scalp. The mean eye/scalp indices were 1.87 +/- 0.19 in controls and 1.98 +/- 0.19 in the affected eyes that were in remission (P = 0.23, nonsignificant). However, during the acute phase of the illness, the mean eye/scalp index was 2.18 +/- 0.28. The difference between controls and the eyes that were in the acute phase of the illness was significant (one way analysis of variance, P = 0.007). The mean value of the index for affected eyes in remission was not significantly different to that for eyes in the acute phase (P = 0.068, nonsignificant). These preliminary findings suggest that, despite previously published reports in animals with experimentally induced uveitis, Tc-99m-GH scintigraphy may not be a very sensitive method for evaluating human ocular inflammations

Associated ocular findings in pericentral pigmentary retinopathy

Macular complications occurred in two isolated patients who had pericentral pigmentary retinopathy. One patient demonstrated bilateral bull's-eye maculopathy and a unilateral full-thickness macular hole. Later, she developed central retinal artery occlusion in the fellow eye. The second patient had a rhegmatogenous retinal detachment that was reattached by scleral buckling surgery, but a full-thickness macular hole was found 3 months postoperatively. In both patients, foveal ischemia may have played a role for the development of macular hole, resulting in poor visual prognosis in pericentral pigmentary retinopathy