Vascular Involvement in Behçet Disease

Vascular involvement is second only to infections as a cause of hospitalization among patients with Behçet disease (BD)—also referred to as Behçet syndrome (BS)—a recent retrospective study revealed.

Researchers also reported male patients with BD who were hospitalized saw greater disease severity.

“We aimed to determine the causes and outcome of hospitalizations among patients with BS in a dedicated center,” the authors reported. “The causes of hospitalization may provide important information on the course of diseases and treatment-related adverse effects.”

Researchers surveyed and analyzed data from 330 patients with BD—all of whom were hospitalized on the rheumatology unit between January 2002 and December 2019. Of the total patient population studied, 75% of patients were men, with a mean age of 37.7, disease diagnosis of more than 10 years, and a total hospitalization count of 456 times over 18 years.

The researchers reviewed patient records for demographic and clinical features, causes of hospitalization, and outcome, dividing hospitalization causes into BS-related (organ involvement or deterioration) and non-BS related (treatment complication or others).

“The reasons for hospitalization were directly related to BS in 259 patients (57%), and non-related to BS in 191 (42%),” the authors wrote. “The most common reasons were vascular involvement for BS-related reasons and infections for non-BS related reasons. There were no differences between the groups regarding gender distribution and use of biologic agents. Three patients died during hospitalization. The reasons were malignancy, infection, and right heart failure due to pulmonary artery thrombosis and pulmonary hypertension, respectively,” the authors concluded.

—Angelique Platas

Reference

Ozguler Y, Hatemi G, Pala AS, et al. Pos1351 Causes of hospitalization in Behçet syndrome. Ann Rheum Dis. 2021;80:958.