Abstract
Patients with Behcet’s disease (BD) (35 patients ; 18 males and 17 females) who visited our clinic from 1990 to 1999 were clinically analyzed. The diagnosis was based on the Japanese Clinical Criteria. The patients with the incompletetype of BD were significantly higher in number than those with the complete type (55% vs. 29%, respectively). Oral aphthosis, which has been frequently reported as an initial symptom of BD, was present in most of our patients during their clinical courses (94%). Furthermore, there was a marked difference in the frequency of the oral aphthosis between males and females (72% vs. 41%, respectively). The positive rate for HLA-B51 allele was exceedingly high among the patients with clinically complete-type disease (66%), suggesting a pathogenic background for BD. NSAIDs, antibiotics including tetracycline and macrolide, steroid, and cyclosporin were frequently administered during the last half decade ; in particular, systemic steroid therapy was chosen for patients with ocular involvement as well as general symptoms (i.e. multiarthralgia and high grade fever). The results indicate that the steroid therapy may be beneficial not only for rapid suppression of the clinical activity of BD, but also for an avoidance of possible adverse effects caused by multi-drug intervention.
