Clinical features of Behcet's disease in patients without oral aphthosis

Objectives: In current study we evaluated clinical features of Behcet's Disease (BD) in patients without oral aphthosis (NOA cases).

Methods: In a cohort of BD, patients registered during a period of 36 years were collected. We determined clinical features of BD NOA cases and compared them with patients with oral aphthosis (OA cases). The comparison was performed by chi square and Fischer's exact test.

Results: Among 6,821 BD patients, 175 patients (2.56%) were NOA cases. Male/Female ratio was less in NOA cases (p-value: 0.078). Mean age of disease onset was significantly higher in NOA cases (p-value: 0.001). Among NOA cases, the first manifestations comprised uveitis (70.3%), joint involvement (8.0%), retinal vasculitis (6.9%), and genital aphthosis (4.0%). During the course of disease, the prevalence of ocular lesions and positive pathergy test were significantly higher in NOA cases. Conversely genital aphthosis (OR: 0.048), mucocutaneous (OR: 0.470), joint involvement (OR: 0.478), and positive family history for BD (OR:0.138) were significantly less frequent in NOA cases. NOA cases fulfilled different criteria including International Criteria for BD (ICBD), Japan Revised, Iran, Dilsen, and Classification Tree.

Conclusions: These results addressed the distinct clinical features in NOA subset of BD Including more prevalent eye involvement and positive pathergy.