Common Comorbidities in Behçet Disease
Behçet disease has been found to co-occur with a variety of other conditions. Click through 8 concise reviews of the evidence in this slide show.
Behçet disease (BD), a multisystemic disorder that has numerous clinical manifestations throughout the body, also has been reported to occur concomitantly with a variety of other conditions.
Scroll through the slides below for concise reports on conditions that are likely to coexist with BD.
Heart disease, stroke, and DVT, too. Overall, BD was shown to have a higher prevalence than previously thought in a retrospective matched cohort study. The risk of ischemic heart disease, stroke/transient ischemic attack, and deep venous thrombosis was significantly greater in patients with BD than in the general population. Most patients with pulmonary embolism and a diagnosis of BD had pulmonary embolism that preceded the diagnosis of BD.Rheumatology.
More malignancy. An overall increased risk of malignancy was seen in patients with BD in a bioinformatics-analysis.The positive association between BD and enhanced malignancy risk was especially significant for hematological cancer and thyroid cancer. In subgroup analysis, female patients with BD had the greatest predisposition to overall malignancy. Medicine.
Headache more common. In a case-control study of headache in BD, the incidence in case and control groups was 28.3 % and 18.6 %, respectively.Tension-type headache was observed in 12.2 % of cases; migraine without aura was most common (9.1 %) in healthy controls. The prevalence of recurrent headache in BD has been estimated at 82.5 %; features of migraine are most dominant. Headache in BD might arise from neurological involvement or independently in the course of disease. Springerplus.
More depression, anxiety, fatigue in BD. Patients with BD had significantly higher Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HADS) scores and Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAF) questionnaire scores than a healthy control group in a cross-sectional study. Patients with active disease had significantly higher MAF and HADS-A (anxiety) scores than inactive patients who had BD. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases.
Sleep apnea is up with Behçet. The risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is significantly elevated in patients who have BD or Sjögren syndrome (SS), a study showed. The higher overall risk of OSA was observed significantly in patients with SS (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 2.48) and in patients with BD (HR, 1.99). The HR for men with SS or BD for OSA was 2.62 and 6.40, respectively.Sleep and Breathing.
Elevated stroke risk. A study that used a nationwide, population-based database to examine the relationship between BD and subsequent ischemic stroke found that stroke risk is elevated in patients with BD. The higher prevalence of ischemic stroke in the BD group was revealed by Kaplan–Meier analysis. After adjusting for comorbidities and demographic characteristics, Cox regression analysis indicated that patients with BD have a 2.77-fold risk of ischemic stroke.PLOS One.
COVID-19 cautions for patients with BD. There may not be a specific risk of COVID-19 for patients with BD, but immunosuppressives may increase the risk. Principles for using immunosuppressives for patients who have BD but not COVID-19: avoid relapse of BD because relapse may carry a larger risk than the effect of immunosuppression (there is no reason to discontinue local treatment, such as for oral ulcers), use telemedicine to replace office visits, and reschedule visits if the patient has no treatment adverse effects and has ongoing remission or low-disease activity. International Society for Behcet’s Disease.
If a BD patient is diagnosed with COVID-19. When infection with COVID-19 is suspected or proven in a patient with BD, immunosuppressives should be stopped and a specialist contacted. Cases should be discussed with an infection medicine specialist with hospitalization decisions determined by the patient’s symptoms and risk factors.An individual risk-benefit assessment considers the patient’s specific situation, BD disease activity, and medication used. International Society for Behcet’s Disease.
