Clinical profile of Behcet’s Disease patients from Saudi Arabia: A Single Tertiary Center, Retrospective Report

Background: Behçet’s disease (BD) is a multisystem vasculitis with heterogeneous phenotypes and notable geographic variability. Prior single-center reports from Saudi Arabia are limited by small samples and inconsistent diagnostic capture. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study (2015–2020) at a tertiary center in central Saudi Arabia. Eligibility followed International Study Group (ISG) and International Criteria for Behçet’s Disease (ICBD) definitions. To ensure diagnostic consistency, the full chart cohort (N=59) is summarized for transparency where variable-level denominators were available. Data were abstracted via a structured instrument across socio-demographics, organ-system involvement, inflammatory markers (ESR/CRP), and therapies. Missingness was quantified a priori and handled via complete-case denominators. Proportions are reported with 95% Wilson CIs; small-cell comparisons used Fisher’s exact tests aligned to prespecified contrasts (sex differences in mucocutaneous disease; ESR/CRP vs organ involvement). Results: The full cohort comprised 59 patients (male 72.9%): oral ulcers 72.9% (43/59; 95% CI 60.4–82.6), genital ulcers 55.9% (33/59; 43.3–67.8), ocular involvement 44.1% (26/59; 32.2–56.7) with anterior uveitis 28.8% (17/59; 18.8–41.4) and posterior uveitis 11.9% (7/59; 5.9–22.5), vascular involvement 13.6% (8/59; 7.0–24.5), arthritis 23.7% (14/59; 14.7–36.0). ESR and CRP were elevated in 18.6% (11/59; 10.7–30.4) and 22.0% (13/59; 13.4–34.1), respectively. Corticosteroids were prescribed in 72.9% (43/59; 60.4–82.6), colchicine 61.0% (36/59; 48.5–72.2), azathioprine 47.5% (28/59; 35.3–60.0). Sex-stratified exact tests showed no significant difference for oral/genital ulcers; a female excess in cutaneous lesions lost robustness under small-sample-valid re-analysis and was treated as exploratory. Missing disease-duration data were substantial (35.6%). Findings were interpreted primarily within the oral-ulcer–confirmed analytic framework and secondarily against the full cohort for context. Conclusions: In central Saudi Arabia, BD presentations were dominated by mucocutaneous and ocular disease with comparatively modest vascular involvement. Inflammatory markers lacked stable associations with organ-system involvement. Given the modest sample, incomplete documentation for some fields, and small-cell structure, results are hypothesis-generating. This criteria-clean profile offers groundwork for a prospective, multi-center registry with standardized phenotyping and time-locked biomarkers.