Clinical Course of Patients with Intestinal Behçet's Disease According to Consensus-Based Diagnostic Categories

Background/aims: There have been few studies regarding the prognosis of intestinal Behçet's disease (iBD) patients according to consensus-based diagnostic categories, which reflects the typicality of intestinal ulcers, the presence of oral ulcers, and the accompanying systemic manifestations.

Methods: The medical records of patients who had ileocolonic ulcers with a clinical impression of iBD were reviewed. The patients were categorized according to the diagnostic algorithm at the time of diagnosis. Adverse events were defined as major surgery or admission related to iBD deterioration.

Results: A total of 163 patients were included in the study. The male-to-female ratio was 1:1.2, and the mean age at the time of diagnosis was 48.9±15.9 years. The numbers of patients who met the definite, probable, suspected, and nondiagnostic iBD criteria were 19 (11.7%), 61 (37.4%), 38 (23.3%), and 45 (27.6%), respectively. The event-free survival of patients with definite, probable, and suspected iBD was significantly shorter than that of patients with nondiagnostic iBD (p=0.026), while there was no significant difference among the definite iBD, probable iBD, and suspected iBD groups (p=0.596). After excluding patients with nondiagnostic iBD, multivariate analysis showed that anemia, fever, colonic involvement other than the ileocecum, and accompanying hematologic disorders at the time of diagnosis were significantly associated with the development of adverse events.

Conclusions: The clinical course of patients with definite, probable, and suspected iBD is distinguished from that of patients with nondiagnostic iBD, but patients with definite, probable, and suspected iBD share similar clinical courses.