BACKGROUND: Behçet's disease is a multisystem inflammatory condition that can lead to severe vascular and neurological complications. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics of a large single-centre Behçet's disease cohort and to investigate the associations of sex, age at onset, and HLA-B51 status with organ involvement patterns. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 4007 patients followed after 2010 at the Behçet's Disease Research and Application Center at Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa. Demographic data, clinical features, and organ involvement were extracted and analyzed based on gender, age of onset, and HLA-B51 status. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 42.9 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.1:1. Males exhibited higher rates of ocular, vascular, and neurological involvement, while females had more joint involvement. HLA-B51 was associated with joint and ocular involvement and pathergy positivity. Early-onset disease (onset <16 years) was observed in 11.2% of patients and was associated with increased rates of systemic involvement. Joint involvement (38.8%) mostly appeared as arthralgia or arthritis. Gastrointestinal involvement (2.9%) was associated with diabetes mellitus. Pathergy positivity was observed in 20.5% of patients and associated with early disease onset and smoking. Multivariable analyses showed that male sex and early disease onset were associated with ocular and neurological involvement, whereas vascular involvement was associated with male sex, early onset, and smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Organ involvement in Behçet's disease varies by sex, age at onset, and HLA-B51 status, highlighting the importance of these factors in clinical evaluation.
Behkami et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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