WASHINGTON, D.C.—Behçet’s disease (BD) is not a common condition, but we frequently receive referrals to evaluate for it in rheumatology clinics because a patient has oral or genital ulcers. So what’s Behçet’s and what’s not? How can we tell the difference? At the ACR Convergence 2024 Review Course, Johannes Nowatzky, MD, director, New York University…
In this ACR Convergence 2023 session, experts offered guidance on a selection of diagnostic & treatment challenges rheumatologists may encounter.
In 1937, the Turkish physician Hulusi Behçet described a number of patients with relapsing aphthous ulcers in the mouth and over the genitalia, as well as hypopyon iritis. Since that time, the eponymous condition, known as Behçet’s disease, has been recognized as a multisystem vasculitis that can present with myriad other signs and symptoms. Although…
A 44-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with bifrontal headaches that had started approximately one month earlier. She was diagnosed with migraines and discharged home. Three days later, the patient returned to the emergency department upon recurrence of her headaches, and this time she also reported abnormal leg movements. A computerized tomography (CT) scan…
In a multicenter, prospective, open-label study, ustekinumab therapy was effective in treating oral ulcers resistant to colchicine in patients with Behçet’s disease, according to study author David Saadoun, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Sorbonne University, Paris, and fellow researchers.1 Researchers focused on the topic because oral ulcers are often disabling, have…
A 13-year-old, adopted girl of unknown ancestry with social anxiety, selective mutism and Takayasu arteritis presented for evaluation of severe, painful, gingival hyperplasia, which limited her oral intake and resulted in weight loss. The young patient was diagnosed with Takayasu arteritis at age 8, when she presented with a persistently elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR),…
A 39-year-old woman presented at the emergency department with three weeks of progressive, constant and pulsatile right-sided headache. She said her headache was worse in the morning and when she would bend forward. She reported associated nausea and vomiting. On initial assessment, she did not have any focal neurological deficits. Her medical history was significant for…
Behçet’s disease is a chronic, relapsing and remitting vasculitis with multisystem involvement. Commonly referred to as the Silk Road disease due to its prevalence in the Asian and Mediterranean region of the traditional Silk Road, Behçet’s was first described by Hippocrates as a triad of symptoms—genital and oral ulcers with uveitis—and attributed to links with…
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Often, no clear explanation exists in neutrophilic dermatosis cases that links a patient’s skin disorder with an internal condition, expert Joseph Jorizzo, MD, professor, founder and former chair of the Dermatology Department at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and professor of clinical dermatology at Wevascularill Cornell Medical College in New York, told attendees…
SAN FRANCISCO—Behçet’s disease is a vasculitis that can be hard to pin down, with a wide variety of manifestations, many of which overlap with other auto-inflammatory conditions, an expert said at a clinical review course at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. The most common feature is oral ulcers, which are expected to be seen at…