Behcet's Disease: Pakistani Experience

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the clinical manifestation of patients with Behcet's disease, and performance of different classification criteria of Behcet's disease in our population.

Methods: It was a retrospective analysis of all Behcet's disease patients attending Department of Rheumatology at Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan from April 2019 to July 2019. We performed a comprehensive clinical evaluation of patients with Behcet's disease, with focus on patients' age, gender and different clinical manifestations.

Results: A consecutive cohort of 20 patients was studied. All patients met the International Criteria of Behcet's Disease criteria, and 18 out of 20 patients also met International Study Group criteria. Mean age of the cohort was 33.5±10.4 years and 45% was female (male to female ratio of 1:1.2). Around 90% of cohort had recurrent oral and genital ulcers. Ocular involvement was present in 80% patients, while Joint manifestations were present in 75% of patients. Cutaneous, neurological (both central and peripheral nervous system involvement), and GIT symptoms were present in 50%, 30%, and 15% of patients, consecutively. Joint pain and eye symptoms were major initial symptoms in males, while eye symptoms and neurological symptoms were more common in female patients at disease onset. Reaching border line significance, Cutaneous(p-value=0.479), ocular(p-value=0.61), and GIT involvement(p-value=0.59) were more prevalent in males while neurological involvement (p-value=0.336) in females.

Conclusion: Behcet's disease occurs commonly in middle age population with equal male to female ratio, with mucocutaneus aphthosis, ocular disease and joint pains being common manifestation. Gastrointestinal symptoms are more common in males while neurological symptoms in females.

Keywords: Aphthous ulcers; Behcet’s disease; Vasculitis.

Fig 1

The frequency of Behcet’s disease manifestations, according to gender.