Pulmonary manifestations in a group of patients with Behçet’s disease

• Published in: The Egyptian journal of internal medicine Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 8 - 14
• Main Authors: Naguib, Sherif M., El Menyawi, Manal M., Nabih, Mona I., Ismail, Ihab
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aneurysms; Hemoptysis; Internal Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Article; Patients; Pulmonary arteries; Tomography; Vein & artery diseases; behçet’s disease; pulmonary artery aneurysm; pulmonary manifestations
• ISSN: 1110-7782; 2090-9098
• DOI: 10.4103/1110-7782.155827

Background and aim
Behçet’s disease (BD) is a multisystem vasculitis and pulmonary involvement in BD is reported to indicate a poor prognosis and high mortality. We aimed to study the manifestations of pulmonary involvement in a group of patients with BD and to study the correlation of pulmonary involvement with other clinical manifestations.
Patients and methods
Our study included 15 patients with BD admitted to Cairo University Hospital, 14 men (93.3%) and one woman (6.7%), mean age 30.06 ± 9.8 years. All patients fulfilled the diagnostic criteria published by the International Study Group for Behçet’s Disease in 1990. All patients were subjected to both plain chest radiography and a helical computed tomography study of the chest.
Results
Pulmonary manifestations were present in 11 patients, 10 men (90.9%) and one woman (9.1%). The main pulmonary and constitutional symptoms were as follows: dyspnea (81.8%), cough (63.6%), expectoration (36.4%), chest pain (54.5%), hemoptysis (36.4%), massive hemoptysis (9.1%), fever (36.4%), and weight loss (63.6%). In the 11 patients with pulmonary manifestations, analyses of both vascular and parenchymal lung lesions in helical computed tomography scan indicated the following: pulmonary artery aneurysm occurred in five patients (45.4%), pulmonary nodules in three patients (27.2%), pleural effusion in three patients (27.2%), pulmonary infarction in one patient (9.1%), and pneumonitis in one patient (9.1%). Pulmonary involvement was associated significantly with a positive pathergy test, erythema nodosum, and gastrointestinal manifestations.
Conclusion
A high frequency of pulmonary artery aneurysm was observed in our patients with pulmonary BD. Patients with pulmonary BD have higher frequencies of skin and gastrointestinal manifestations.