Venous thrombosis and relapses in patients with Behçet's disease. Descriptive analysis from Spanish network of Behçet's disease (REGEB cohort)

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the characteristics of patients with Behçet's disease (BD) who presented with venous thrombosis. In addition, we identified the factors associated with this venous involvement and those related with recurrent venous thrombosis.

Methods: Up to January 2015, 544 BD patients from 20 Spanish hospitals had been included in the REGEB (REGistro de la Enfermedad de Behçet as Spanish nomenclature). We selected those patients who presented venous thrombosis. Descriptive analysis was performed and factors related with venous thrombosis were identified.

Results: Overall, 99 (18.2%) BD patients had vascular thrombosis, 91 (16.7%) of them (16.7%) involving venous vessels and 18 (19.7%) suffered from venous thrombotic relapse. Lower limbs were the most common location of deep venous thrombosis present in up to 60% of patients. In 12 (13.2%) patients, venous thrombosis affected two vascular territories simultaneously and in 6 (6.6%) the venous and arterial involvement coincided in time. Overall, at the diagnosis of venous thrombosis, 97.6% of patients presented concomitantly other clinical symptoms attributable to BD. In logistic regression multivariate analysis factors associated to venous thrombosis were male sex (Odds ratio [OR] 4.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.5-7.7), erythema nodosum (OR 2.4, 95%CI 1.4-4.1), fever (OR 2.0, 95%CI 1.1-3.8), and central nervous system (CNS) involvement (OR 2.5, 95%CI 1.3-4.8). Considering relapses, CNS involvement was an independent risk factor according logistic regression. However, Cox multivariate analysis did not confirm this finding.

Conclusions: We identified factors related with venous involvement in patients included in the REGEB cohort.