Common complications of Behcet’s Disease in Baghdad Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Behcet’s disease is multi-systemic vasculitis, which usually is frequent oral & genital
ulcerations as well as eye and skin lesions.
Objectives: To determine the proportion of complications of BD & associated epidemiological variables.
Patients and Methods : A cross-sectional study was conducted and performed in the Baghdad teaching
hospital’s Rheumatology unit and Dermatology and Venereology Center, involving (116) patients over the
course of six months, beginning November 2nd and ending April 2nd, 2020.
Results: The patients ranged in age from 13 to 64 years old at the time of the study. The mean age and SD was
35.08±10.46 and 70.7% from male while 29.3% from female. Recurrent oral ulceration, Recurrent genital
ulceration, Eye lesion, Skin lesion, and Joint symptoms were the most common clinical manifestations of
Behcet’s disease, with 96.6 percent, 37.9%, 67.2 percent, 62.1 percent, and 75.9%, respectively. The most
common Behcet’s disease complication was ocular complication (34.5 percent), and the first major symptom
of BD (94 percent) was oral ulcer. The age at onset of disease at (20-29) years with higher frequency (38.8%).
Conclusion : Higher percentages of study sample had ocular complications (83%) while the lower percentage
(2%) had gastrointestinal complication.
Recommendations: More research is required to determine the etiology, enhance diagnosis precision,
and develop new therapeutic strategies. To prevent visceral and ocular involvements, early diagnosis and
treatment with the help of a dermatologist with extensive experience is essential.