title: Vascular involvement in Behçet's syndrome: a retrospective analysis of associations and the time course.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Some features of Behçet's syndrome (BS) tend to go together. We aimed to explore the association and timing of various vascular events in both the venous and the arterial vascular tree.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a chart survey on the type and time of vascular involvement of BS. The cross-relationships of involvement were assessed by phi correlation coefficients. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to identify patterns of vascular involvement. The risk of vascular recurrence was also estimated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified 882 patients with vascular involvement among 5970 BS patients (14.7%). Deep vein thrombosis (DVT), almost always in the legs, was the most frequent single vascular event (592/882; 67.1%). The cumulative risk of a recurrent vascular event was 38.4% at 5 years. Patients with extrapulmonary artery involvement (EPAI) were significantly older than those with venous and pulmonary artery involvement (PAI). There were significant correlations between dural sinus thrombosis (DST) and PAI, Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS) and inferior vena cava syndrome (IVCS) and between IVCS and superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS). Multiple correspondence analysis further indicated clustering of PAI, DST, BCS, IVCS and SVCS. However, EPAI and DVT clustered separately from forms of vascular disease, the separate clustering of the DVT being attributed to its propensity to occur solo.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most common type of vascular involvement in BS is solo DVT, almost always occurring in the legs. Various forms of venous disease in BS segregate together and PAI is included in this group. EPAI segregates separately.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul and Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.
authors.forename: Koray
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tascilar
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul and Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey. melikoglum@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Melike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Melikoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul and Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.
authors.forename: Serdal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ugurlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul and Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.
authors.forename: Necdet
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sut
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul and Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.
authors.forename: Erkan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Caglar
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul and Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yazici
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000783:Aneurysm / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D011651:Pulmonary Artery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D020246:Venous Thrombosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Behçet’s syndrome; arterial aneurysm; dural sinus thrombosis; pulmonary artery aneurysm; venous thrombosis