Behçet's syndrome patients have high levels of functional disability, fatigue and pain as measured by a Multi-dimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ).
OBJECTIVE
Current tools for assessing Behçet's syndrome (BS) do not include patient-reported outcomes such as functional disability, pain or fatigue. We examined various outcome measures using the multi-dimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ) and compared them between BS patients with and without arthritis. We also compared the results to those for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the disease in relation to which the MDHAQ has been most thoroughly studied.


METHODS
We conducted a comparative review of BS and early RA patients being followed at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases (NYU HJD) and the Behçet's Syndrome Center. All patients completed an MDHAQ at each visit, which included functional disability, pain, morning stiffness, fatigue, and patient and physician global assessments of disease activity. A chart review for BS manifestations and treatments was also carried out. All patient evaluations reported here represent the baseline values at first visit.


RESULTS
129 patients with BS and 116 with early RA were surveyed. BS patients had similar pain levels and physician global assessment of disease activity to the RA patients and higher functional disability, fatigue and patient assessments of global disease activity. Among BS patients, those with arthritis had significantly higher scores for all the outcome measures examined except the physician global assessment of disease activity.


CONCLUSIONS
Using the MDHAQ could reveal previously under-recognized problems in BS, as was observed in this survey of BS patients with arthritis. Such information might be helpful in the management of patients with BS.
Moses Alder
N
N
Behçet's Syndrome Evaluation, Treatment and Research Center, New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, New York, NY, USA.
Fisher
M
M
Yazici
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult