Clinical characteristics of Behçet's disease in China.
To evaluate the prevalence of clinical findings in Behçet's disease (BD) in Chinese population. The clinical data of 170 consecutive BD patients were, retrospectively, analyzed and compared with previous reports. The mean age at onset was 34.4 years (range 6-72) and the mean age of diagnosis was 39.1 years (range 8-72). Mean delay in diagnosis was 5.7 years. The male to female ratio was 1.3:1. Recurrent aphthous ulceration (64.7%), skin lesion (18.2%), and genital ulceration (8.2%) were the commonest onset-presentations of the disease. During the disease course, the commonest presenting features were oral ulcer (100%), cutaneous involvement (68.2%), genital ulcer (63.5%), arthritis (37.1%), and ocular lesion (14.1%). As for the minor clinical manifestations, gastrointestinal lesion (10.0%), vascular lesion (8.8%), and cardiac lesion (4.7%) occurred occasionally. The pathergy skin test showed positive in 63.5% of the patients and revealed a higher positive rate in the females (76.7%) than in the males (53.6%). Less ocular lesion and genital ulcer were present in Chinese BD patients.
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
Liao-Yuan
LY
Wang
Dong-Bao
DB
Zhao
Jun
J
Gu
Sheng-Ming
SM
Dai
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D017668:Age of Onset; D001168:Arthritis; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005123:Eye / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019226:Oral Ulcer / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012871:Skin Diseases; D013281:Stomatitis, Aphthous