Summaries of two articles about BD in the U.S., and six FREE Behcet's articles

There aren't very many published research studies that specifically talk about Behcet's patients in the U.S. Summaries of two recent studies are provided below. You may be able to get the full articles from your doctors, or at a local medical library.

After these summaries, I'm also providing links to six free, full-text medical journal articles about Behcet's that have been published in the last 1-2 months.

BD in the United States:

1. Arthritis Rheum. 2009 Apr 29;61(5):600-604 [Epub ahead of print]
   Epidemiology and clinical characteristics of Behcet's disease in the US: A population-based study.
   Calamia KT, Wilson FC, Icen M, Crowson CS, Gabriel SE, Kremers HM.
   
   The bottom line: This study looked at 13 Behcet's cases in Olmsted County, Minnesota (home of the Mayo Clinic) over 45 years (1960-2005). All patients were 18 and older; 11 of them met the International Study Group (ISG) criteria for Behcet's, and 69% of the patients were white. One hundred percent of them had oral ulcers, 62% had genital ulcers, 46% had erythema nodosum, and 54% had papulopustular lesions. There were ocular lesions in 8 patients, vascular complications in 3 patients, and central nervous system involvement in 3 patients. "The prevalence of 5.2 per100,000 population is similar to estimates reported in Western countries, but lower than that in countries along the Silk Road."
   PMID: 19405011 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19405011
   
   
   
2. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2008 Jul-Aug;26 (4 Suppl 50):S110-3.
   Behcet's syndrome patients have high levels of functional disability, fatigue and pain as measured by a Multi-dimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ).
   Moses Alder N, Fisher M, Yazici Y.
   Behçet's Syndrome Evaluation, Treatment and Research Center, New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, New York, NY, USA.
   
   The bottom line: This study was really done to find out if a certain health questionnaire (the MDHAQ) was good to use for Behcet's patients -- but it also came up with some good information on Behcet's-related pain levels, morning stiffness, fatigue, and some other health issues. The researchers compared the answers of 129 Behcet's patients with the answers from 116 patients who had early rheumatoid arthritis. It turns out that BD patients had pain levels that were similar to the amount of pain felt in early rheumatoid arthritis, but BD patients had higher amounts of "functional disability" [a health condition that limits his or her ability to go outside the home alone or causes difficulty in taking care of personal needs such as bathing, dressing, or getting around inside the home], and higher amounts of fatigue than the RA patients. Behcet's patients also felt that they had more overall health issues and active disease than the RA patients. Behcet's patients who also had arthritis had higher pain/disability/fatigue scores than BD patients who didn't have arthritis.
   PMID: 19026127 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19026127
   

FREE medical journal articles on Behcet's, published March-May 1, 2009:

1. Beyranvand MR, Namazi MH, Mohsenzadeh Y, Assadpour Piranfar M.
   Acute myocardial infarction [heart attack] in a patient with Behcet's disease.
   Arch Iran Med. 2009 May;12(3):313-6.
   PubMed PMID: 19400613.
   http://www.ams.ac.ir/AIM/NEWPUB/09/12/3/0018.pdf
   
   
2. Rahil AI, Errayes M, Salem KM.
   Cerebral venous thrombosis as the initial presentation of Behcet's disease.
   Chang Gung Med J. 2009 Mar-Apr;32(2):220-3.
   PubMed PMID: 19403013.
   http://www.cgmh.org.tw/cgmj/3202/320213.pdf
   
   
3. Takahama M, Yamamoto R, Nakajima R, Tada H.
   Successful surgical treatment of pulmonary artery aneurysm in Behcet's syndrome.
   Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2009 Mar;8(3):390-2. Epub 2008 Dec 8.
   PubMed PMID: 19064583.
   Karatepe O, Ziyade S, Ugurlucan M, Gasparyan AY.
   http://icvts.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/reprint/8/3/390
   
   
4. eComment: treatment of pulmonary artery aneurysm in Behcet's disease - few things can make big differences.
   Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2009 Mar;8(3):392.
   PubMed PMID:19223315.
   http://icvts.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/reprint/8/3/392
   
   
5. Altintaş E, Senli MS, Polat A, Sezgin O.
   A case of Behcet's disease presenting with massive lower gastrointestinal bleeding.
   Turk J Gastroenterol. 2009 Mar;20(1):57-61.
   PubMed PMID: 19330737.
   http://www.turkgastro.org/pdf/684.pdf
   
   
6. Yi SW, Cheon JH, Kim JH, Lee SK, Kim TI, Lee YC, Kim WH.
   The prevalence and clinical characteristics of esophageal involvement in patients with Behcet's disease: a single center experience in Korea.
   J Korean Med Sci. 2009 Feb;24(1):52-6. Epub 2009 Feb 28.
   PubMed PMID: 19270813; PubMed Central PMCID:PMC2650985.
   http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2650985&blobtype=pdf