HLA-B51 Impact on Clinical Symptoms in Behcet's Disease

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the association of HLA-B51-positivity to clinical manifestations of Behçet's disease (BD).

Study design: Descriptive study.

Place and duration of study: Clinic of Rheumatology, Dıskapi Education and Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, Turkey, from December 2018 to December 2020.

Methodology: Patients who had HLA-B5 genetic results and fulfilled the international criteria for BD were included in the study. HLA-B51 status was determined and compared with the symptomatology.

Results: Mean age of 204 cases was 39.9±11.4 years. There were 52.5% female and 47.5% male patients. One hundred (61.7%) patients were HLA-B51-positive. The frequency of papulopustular lesions (PPL), ocular involvement, neurologic involvement, and vascular involvement was significantly higher in HLA-B51-positive patients compared to HLA-B51 negative patients (p=0.044, 0.012, 0.039, and 0.022 respectively). HLA-B51-positivity was found to be a significant risk factor for PPL (OR and 95% CI:1.946 and 1.044-3.629), ocular involvement (OR and 95% CI:2.399 and 1.165-4.938), and neurological involvement (OR and 95% CI:5.404 and 1.119-26.093). Significant risk factors for vascular involvement were male gender (OR and 95% CI:2.810 and 1.403-5.627) and low age of disease onset (OR and 95% CI:0.935 and 0.894-0.979).

Conclusion: Ocular, vascular, and neurological involvements are more common in patients with BD with HLA-B51-positive. HLA-B51 was found to be an independent risk factor for papulopustular lesion, ocular and neurological involvement, while the male gender was found to be an independent risk factor for vascular involvement.

Key words: Behcet syndrome / genetics, HLA-B51, Neurologic involvement, Ocular involvement, Vascular involvement, Vasculitis* / diagnosis.