Clinical Evaluation of Behcet`s Disease Report of 85 Cases

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the clinical characteristics of Behcet`s disease, we reviewed the clinical record of the patient visited Chonnam University Hospital from January, 1987 to December, 1995. Among all 85 patients, the majority of them were in the fourth decade (42.4%) and 49 patients (58.9%) were female. Oral ulcer (81.2%) was the most frequent initial symptom. According to the criteria established by the Behcet`s Disease Research Committee of Japan, incomplete type was the ost common (43.5%) and the most frequent major and minor symptom was oral ulcer (95.3%) and arthritis (21.2%), respectively. Ocular lesions ppeared in 39 (45.9%), and 19 patients (48.7%) had two or more ocular esions. The most common symptom was iritis (70.7%) and male was more commonly affected than female. The mean interval between initial symptom and ocular symptom was 45.8 months. Among 43 eyes of 26 patients with follow-up of 3 months or more, 14 (32.6%) showed an impairment of two or more lines in visual acuity and 21 (48.8%) eyes had inal visual acuity of 0.3 or less. As similar to other reports, this result suggests Behcet`s disease is achronic, inflammatory disorder characterized by poor visual prognosis.