Epidemiologic and Clinical Survey of Behçet's Disease in Korea: the First Multicenter Study

Abstract

The prevalence of Behcet's disease is the highest in the East Asian and the Mediterranean countries. Behcet's disease is also distributed in the Asian countries, but the nationwide survey has not been performed in Korea yet. The Korean Study Group for Behcet's Disease, founded in 1999, conducted a multicenter, retrospective survey on epidemiologic and clinical features of the patients with Behcet's disease from 20 hospitals around the nation from 1997 to 1999. Of 3,497 patients, 1,527 were classified into complete or incomplete type of Behcet's disease according to the revised Shimizu's classification. The sex ratio was 1:1.75 with the female predominance. Geographical distribution showed the highest frequency in Seoul (38.5%). Clinically, 98.8% had oral ulcers, 83.2% had genital ulcers, 84.3% had skin lesions and 50.9% had ocular lesions. As for the minor clinical manifestations, articular symptoms were the most frequent. The pathergy test showed positive in 15.4% of patients and revealed a higher positive rate in males (20.2%) than in females (12.7%). In conclusion, we performed the first multicenter study on Behcet's disease in Korea and revealed the female predominance, higher frequency of ocular lesions, and lower positivity of pathergy test in the patients.

The Clinical Features of Behcet's Disease in Yongdong Districts: Analysis of a Cohort Followed from 1997 to 2001

“…There was no patient with the visual loss due to the ocular lesions by BD during the follow-up, and those regimens seem to be effective for the treatment of Behc,et's uveitis. On the other hand, the prevalence of ocular lesions in the multicenter study in Korea (13) was much higher than those in the previous studies in Korea and in the current study, and this might be partly due to the use of the Japanese criteria that has emphasized the presence of ocular involvement.…”

“…After the introduction of a disposable needle, the prevalence and intensity of a positive pathergy reaction have been described to decrease when compared with those by the non-disposable needle used in the pre-AIDS era (20). The current study showed a somewhat higher rate of a positive pathergy reaction than the multicenter study in Korea (13). We previously reported that the positive pathergy reaction was usually found in the active phase of the disease in individual cases with a positive reaction (6).…”

“…The comparative data of clinical features of BD in Korea, Turkey, Germany, and Greece are presented in Table 9 (3,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Because the criteria for the clinical studies of BD in Korea have not been unified, it is difficult to compare our data with others in the literature.…”

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 polymorphisms in Korean patients with Behcet's disease

“…The clinical major symptoms of BD in Korean patients are oral ulcers (98.8%), skin lesions (84.3%), genital ulcers (83.2%), ocular lesions (50.9%), and minor symptoms including articular symptoms (38.4%), gastrointestinal symptoms (7.3%), neurological symptoms (4.6%), epididymitis (0.6%), and vascular symptoms (1.8%) (2). This wide range of clinical symptoms of BD probably reflects different genetic backgrounds.…”

Conn's Syndrome Associated with Behcet's Disease

“…It also occurs in Central and East Asian countries, such as Korea, Japan, and China. The incidence of BD in Korea has been increasing (13). The etiology of BD remains unclear, but genetic and environmental factors probably play a role in its pathogenesis.…”