Mucosal healing predicts the long-term prognosis of intestinal Behçet's disease.
BACKGROUND
Mucosal healing (MH) has emerged as a therapeutic goal in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease; however, little is known about the impact of MH on the prognosis of intestinal Behçet's disease (BD).


OBJECTIVE
We investigated whether MH could predict the prognosis of intestinal BD.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 80 patients with intestinal BD who underwent colonoscopy within 3 months after clinical remission. The clinical recurrence rate according to the presence or absence of MH was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. In order to evaluate MH as an independent prognostic factor, a multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression model was performed including other potential factors for the relapse of intestinal BD.


RESULTS
The number of patients with active ulcers at the time of clinical remission was 57 (71.3%), while 23 patients (28.7%) were experiencing MH. In the active ulcer group, 39 patients (68.4%) experienced recurrence during the follow-up period, whereas 7 patients (30.4%) recurred in the MH group. The cumulative recurrence rate was significantly higher in the active ulcer group than in the MH group (P < 0.001). A multivariate analysis identified active ulcers at the time of clinical remission as an independent predictive factor for relapse.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrates that MH is an independent factor predictive of long-term prognosis of intestinal BD. MH might be the ultimate therapeutic goal in the treatment of intestinal BD.
Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-752, Korea.
Sun Mie
SM
Yim
Duk Hwan
DH
Kim
Hyun Jung
HJ
Lee
Hui Won
HW
Jang
Soo Jung
SJ
Park
Sung Pil
SP
Hong
Tae Il
TI
Kim
Won Ho
WH
Kim
Jae Hee
JH
Cheon
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult