title: Immunosuppressants reduce venous thrombosis relapse in Behçet's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate and describe the long-term outcome of venous thrombosis in patients with Behçet's disease (BD).
  
  
  METHODS
  In a retrospective cohort of 807 BD patients, a reported 296 patients (36.7%) (73.3% male, median age 30 years [interquartile range 24-36 years]) met the international classification criteria for BD and had venous thrombosis. We assessed factors associated with thrombosis relapse and mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were a total of 586 venous thrombosis events, including 560 cases of deep thrombosis and 26 cases of superficial thrombosis. Deep venous thrombosis events included 323 cases of limb thrombosis (55.1%), 77 cases of cerebral venous thrombosis (13.1%), 57 cases of pulmonary embolism (9.7%), 63 cases of vena cava lesions (10.7%), 14 cases of Budd-Chiari syndrome (2.4%), and 13 cases of cervical vein thrombosis (2.2%). One hundred of 296 patients (33.8%) experienced at least 1 venous thrombosis relapse. The mortality rate was 6.4% (19 of 296 patients) after a median followup of 4.75 years (interquartile range 2-7 years). In univariate analysis, death was associated with cardiac involvement (P = 0.026) and Budd-Chiari syndrome (P = 0.004). In multivariate analysis, the use of immunosuppressive agents was found to prevent relapse of venous thrombosis (hazard ratio 0.27 [95% confidence interval 0.14-0.52], P = 0.00021), and there was a trend toward prevention of relapse with the use of glucocorticoids (hazard ratio 0.62 [95% confidence interval 0.40-0.97], P = 0.058).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Immunosuppressive agents significantly reduce venous thrombosis relapse in BD.
authors.affiliation: UMR CNRS 7211, INSERM U959, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, AP-HP, and Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Paris, France.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Desbois
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wechsler
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Resche-Rigon
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Piette
authors.forename: D Le Thi
authors.initials: Dle T
authors.lastname: Huong
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Amoura
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Koskas
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Desseaux
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cacoub
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saadoun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D006502:Budd-Chiari Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D020246:Venous Thrombosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents