title: Systemic and pulmonary screening of patients with Behçet's disease during periodic follow-up.
abstract: Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystemic disease that may involve all systems, the most common symptoms being oral and genital ulcerations and ocular involvement. Pulmonary involvement is not usually investigated in BD unless there is a specific complaint. In this study, pulmonary parameters and findings were investigated in BD patients at periodic follow-ups. A total of 112 subjects with a definitive diagnosis of BD from the Ocular Diseases Polyclinic, Behçet Disease Center, Ankara Training and Research Hospital and who had been referred to the Thoracic Diseases Polyclinic between January-October 2010 were evaluated. In the patients, the absence of active smoking, pregnancy, lactation and systemic steroid use were especially considered. A total of 112 patients between 14 and 61 years-old (53 male, 59 female) were enrolled in the study. The duration of follow-up varied between 1 and 22 years. The most commonly encountered symptom was hemoptysis observed in 18 subjects. 43 patients had mild obstruction, 9 patients had moderate obstruction, 4 patients had advanced obstruction and 4 patients showed restrictive alterations. Thoracic CT was normal for 83 subjects. Pulmonary involvement was observed as a pulmonary artery aneurysm in 4 patients and was treated. In BD, although anyone of PFT and CT values is normal, others may show pathological values. We believe that it would be useful in the follow-up to keep a regular record of the patient data and to perform PFT and, if possible, CT periodically.
authors.affiliation: Ankara Training and Research Hospital Chest Disease, Ankara Training and Research Hospi., 06340 Ankara, Turkey. cemberkin@ttmail.com
authors.forename: Gulden
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bilgin
authors.forename: Gulten
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sungur
authors.forename: Vildan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kucukterzi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000783:Aneurysm / Q000209:etiology; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006469:Hemoptysis / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000379:methods; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011651:Pulmonary Artery; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests / Q000379:methods; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D055815:Young Adult