Clinical manifestations of Behcet's disease in Chinese patients

Aim and method:  The data of 1996 patients from 46 medical centres were meta-analysed for the purpose of determining the type and frequency of clinical features of Behcet's disease in Chinese patients. The age at onset was 33.8 ± 12.2 years with 1144 male and 852 female patients. The duration of follow-up at study entry was 8.9 ± 5.2 years. Results:  The common manifestations observed throughout the disease course were oral aphthae (98.4%), genital aphthae (76.3%), various cutaneous lesions including erythema nodosum and pseudo-folliculitis (69.0%), inflammatory ocular disease (34.8%) and arthralgia/arthritis (30.0%). Other systems, such as gastrointestines, vessels, nerves, heart, lungs, kidneys and blood, were also involved in Chinese Behcet's disease patients at the prevalence of 8.8%, 7.7%, 6.5%, 4.0%, 2.2%, 1.9% and 0.8%, respectively. Ophthalmologic presentation occurred earlier than the involvement of major vessels, gastrointestines, the nervous system and the haematological system. Vascular involvement as well as ocular, heart and nervous system involvement were more common in men than women (11.8%vs. 2.2%, P   0.05). Positive pathergy test was present in 57.9% of all patients and most of these were male (70%vs. 41.7%, P < 0.001). Conclusions:  Behcet's disease starts frequently around the beginning of the third decade and has a male predominance. The disease is usually more severe in men than women in Chinese populations.