Changes of peripheral blood leukocyte in Behçet uveitis patients with different stages

Abstract

Objective To analyze the changes of peripheral blood leukocyte in patients with Behcet uveitis (BU) at different stages. Methods Case control study was performed.Twenty active stage BU patients and 21 quiet stage BU patients were enrolled from July to November 2015 in Peking Union Medical College Hospital.Ten active stage BU patients treated with glucocorticoid and/or immunosuppressive agents were served as improvement stage BU patients.Meanwhile, 82 healthy controls were collected from the physical examination center.Peripheral blood was obtained and then analyzed by using Hematoflow method.The percentages of leukocytes in peripheral blood of different stage BU patients were compared.This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital (ZS-1341) and all participants signed informed consent. Results The percentage of mature neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, B lymphocytes, non-cytotoxic T and NK lymphocytes, granular T and NK lymphocytes, T blasts, B blasts and immature granulocytes were all significantly different among active stage BU group, quiet stage BU group and healthy control group (F=42.324, 10.220, 8.660, 11.254, 29.795, 31.305, 23.742, 27.738 and 34.638, all at P<0.001). The percentage of mature neutrophils in active stage BU group and quiet stage BU group were (73.10±10.21)% and (62.40±12.09)%, which were significantly higher than (54.95±6.07)% in healthy control group.The percentage of mature neutrophils in active stage BU group was significantly higher than that in quiet stage BU group (P<0.05). The percentages of non-cytotoxic T, NK lymphocytes, granular T and NK lymphocytes in active stage BU group and quiet stage BU group were significantly lower than that in healthy control group, the percentage of non-cytotoxic T, NK lymphocytes and granular T, NK lymphocytes in active stage BU group were significantly lower than those in quiet stage BU group (all at P<0.05). The percentage of immature granulocytes after treatment was significantly higher than that before treatment in improvement stage BU group (t=-2.469, P=0.036). Conclusions Increase of peripheral blood mature neutrophil was observed in BU patients, which may help to monitor the inflammatory activity of BU. Key words: Behcet syndrome; Uveitis; Peripheral blood leucocyte; Neutrophil