Behcet's disease in Iraqi patients.

Abstract

The prevalence of the disease varies widely from country to country and probably from race to race, being reported as 1/10 000 population in Hokkaido, Japan,2 0-064/10 000 in Yorkshire, England,3 and 1/300 000 in Minnesota, USA.

Behcet's Disease in Saudi Arabia

“…We recorded a 70% incidence of HLA-B5(51), which was very similar to that in Iraq, 15 Turkey, 20 and Japan, 21 though it was not found in Britain. 11 This figure contrasts with the 26% seen in normal persons in this population.…”

“…Arterial involvement was seen in three of our patients in contrast to two from Kuwait 14 and none from Iraq. 15 The arterial aneurysm seen in two of these, though rare, is well documented. 12,17 The acute myocardial infarction seen in patient 38, however, does not appear to have been documented before.…”

“…3,11,[13][14][15] On the other hand, there appear to have been more psychiatric manifestations in Kuwait 14 than either Riyadh or Iraq. 15 These differences may reflect an interest in the respective specialties in the different institutions. However, since all three studies have come from referral hospitals, 13-15 the differences could to some extent be real.…”

Neuro-Behçet Disease

“…[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]104 This variation may be due to not only geographic and ethnic factors but also variable definitions of NBD and inclusion or exclusion of particular neurologic manifestations in different studies. In our prospective study with exclusion of all unsubstantiated cases, the prevalence of definite neurologic involvement among 96 Behçet patients was 6.3%.…”

Pulmonary Involvement in Behcet's Disease

“…2,3 Initially, it was diagnosed almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East, but recently it has been recognized to occur throughout the world, particularly in Japan. [4][5][6] Significant pulmonary involvement is well described, though uncommon , with a prevalence of up to 7%.…”