Pulmonary involvement in patients with Behçet's disease: report of 15 cases.
OBJECTIVE
Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystem vasculitis, and pulmonary involvement in BD can have complex clinical manifestations. We aimed to analyze the clinical and radiological features, as well as the outcomes, of BD patients with pulmonary manifestation.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 106 patients with BD diagnosed in our institute between January 2000 and January 2013. Patients with pulmonary vascular or parenchymal abnormalities on chest radiography, thorax computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging or pulmonary scintigraphy were included in this study.


RESULTS
Fifteen patients (14%) were identified to have pulmonary involvement. Pulmonary artery aneurysms (PAA) was observed in six patients, and all of them had concomitant thrombi, attenuation or occlusion of PAs, and five of them also had radiographic parenchymal changes. Three patients had solely pulmonary artery thrombus (PAT) without PAA. For the six patients with isolated radiographic parenchyma changes, pulmonary infiltration resolved with immunosuppressant therapy in four subjects; the lesion remained unchanged in one subject with radiographic interstitial changes, and acid-fast bacilli were found in the remaining subject. Patients with PAA or PAT had more frequency of hemoptysis and extra-pulmonary vascular lesions compared with isolated parenchymal involvement. Radiographic parenchyma changes are nonspecific, with ill-defined ground-glass opacity being the most common pulmonary radiographic parenchymal changes. Patients with isolated parenchymal changes had better prognosis than those with PAA or PAT.


CONCLUSIONS
BD with pulmonary involvement can have a wide spectrum of abnormal clinical and radiographic manifestations, and multiple pulmonary lesions can exit in the same patient.
Pulmonary and Critical Care Department, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Xiaolei
X
Zhang
Pulmonary and Critical Care Department, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Huaping
H
Dai
Pulmonary and Critical Care Department, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Zhanhong
Z
Ma
Pulmonary and Critical Care Department, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Yuanhua
Y
Yang
Pulmonary and Critical Care Department, Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Yan
Y
Liu
D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D055815:Young Adult
Behçet's disease; clinical features; pulmonary involvement; radiological features