Journals / Turkish Journal of Internal Medicine / 2026 / Volume: 7 Issue: 2

Are Male Patients with Behçet’s Disease Unlucky? : An Analysis of 506 Behçet Patients

Burcu Ceren Uludoğan(ESKISEHIR OSMANGAZI UNIVERSITY)0000-0001-7838-7629
Mustafa Dinler(ESKISEHIR OSMANGAZI UNIVERSITY)0000-0002-8133-8278
Reşit Yıldırım(ESKISEHIR OSMANGAZI UNIVERSITY)0000-0003-4040-0212
Yasemin Sağlan(ESKISEHIR OSMANGAZI UNIVERSITY)0000-0002-5066-0432
Nazife Şule Yaşar Bilge(ESKİŞEHİR OSMANGAZİ ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0002-0783-1072
Timuçin Kaşifoğlu(ESKISEHIR OSMANGAZI UNIVERSITY)0000-0003-2544-8648
Pages
—
Publication Date
2025-04-29
🏛️Bibliographic metadata and full text access for this article are provided via DergiPark.
DergiPark Record ↗
✨

AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

However, it is a heterogeneous disease, other factors may certainly affect the emergence of clinical findings.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:Background Behçet's Disease (BD) is characterized by oral and genital ulcers, arthritis, skin manifestations, uveitis, gastrointestinal tract, and central nervous system involvement.
📊
Key Findings & Data:Methods 506 patients diagnosed with Behçet's disease were included in the study.
💡
Conclusion & Impact:However, it is a heterogeneous disease, other factors may certainly affect the emergence of clinical findings.
🔬Design:Research Article
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:Behçet’s disease · gender · male

Abstract

Background Behçet's Disease (BD) is characterized by oral and genital ulcers, arthritis, skin manifestations, uveitis, gastrointestinal tract, and central nervous system involvement. Although it is known to be more severe in men, there are studies in the literature with conflicting results regarding gender and the distribution of clinical findings. This study aimed to examine the relationship between clinical findings and gender in BD patients and to compare our results with the literature. Methods 506 patients diagnosed with Behçet's disease were included in the study. Demographic data, laboratory, and clinical findings of the patients were obtained retrospectively from hospital records. The distribution of clinical findings according to gender was evaluated. Results A total of 280 males (55.3%) and 226 females (44.7%) were included in the study. There was no significant difference between male and female patients regarding age at diagnosis (p=0.662). Genital ulcer (47.6% vs 52.4%, p=0.011), superficial thrombophlebitis (20.9% vs 79.1%, p=0.002), uveitis (33.7% vs 66.3%, p=0.02), deep vein thrombosis (22.5% vs 77.5%, p=0.00) and pulmonary artery aneurysm (11.1% vs 88.9%, p=0.046) were more common in males. There was no significant difference between the sexes in other clinical findings, HLA B5, and pathergy positivity. Conclusion Gender impacts the clinical manifestations of BD and should be considered in patient follow-up. However, it is a heterogeneous disease, other factors may certainly affect the emergence of clinical findings.

🔖

Cite This Article

Uludoğan, B. C., Dinler, M., Yıldırım, R., Sağlan, Y., Bilge, N. Ş. Y., Kaşifoğlu, T. (2025). Are Male Patients with Behçet’s Disease Unlucky? : An Analysis of 506 Behçet Patients. Turkish Journal of Internal Medicine, Volume: 7 Issue: 2. https://doi.org/10.46310/tjim.1648905

📄 Full Text PDF Viewer

📄

PDF görüntüleyici hazırlanıyor...

References (23)

  1. Adil A, Goyal A, Quint JM. Behcet disease. StatPearls Publishing, Treasure Island. StatPearls Publishing; 2024.
  2. Verity DH, Marr JE, Ohno S, Wallace GR, Stanford MR. Behcet’s disease, the Silk Road and HLA-B51: historical and geographical perspectives. Tissue Antigens. 1999 Aug;54:213–220.
  3. Yazici Y, Hatemi G, Bodaghi B, Seyahi E, Direskeneli H, Akman-Demir G, Mahr A, Saadoun D, Gül A. Behçet syndrome. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2021 Jul;7(1):67. doi: 10.1038/s41572-021-00294-5.
  4. Ortiz-Fernandez L, Sawalha AH. Genetics of Behcet’s disease: functional genetic analysis and estimating disease heritability. Front Med. 2021 Feb;8:625710. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.625710.
  5. Jo YG, Ortiz-Fernández L, Coit P, Kim ST, Sawalha AH. Sex-specific analysis in Behçet's disease reveals higher genetic risk in male patients. J Autoimmun. 2022 Jun;132:102882. doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2022.102882.
  6. Cansu DÜ, Kaşifoğlu T, Korkmaz C. Do clinical findings of Behçet’s disease vary by gender?: A single-center experience from 329 patients. Eur J Rheumatol. 2016 Dec;3(4):157–160. doi: 10.5152/eurjrheum.2016.16046.
  7. Ucar-Comlekoglu D, Fox A, Sen HN. Gender differences in Behçet’s disease associated uveitis. J Ophthalmol. 2014;2014:820710. doi: 10.1155/2014/820710.
  8. Bang DS, Oh SH, Lee KH, Lee ES, Lee SN. Influence of sex on patients with Behçet's disease in Korea. J Korean Med Sci. 2003 Apr;18(2):231–235. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2003.18.2.231.
  9. Bonitsis NG, Luong Nguyen LB, LaValley MP, Papoutsis N, Altenburg A, Kötter I, Micheli C, Maldini C, Mahr A, Zouboulis CC. Gender-specific differences in Adamantiades-Behçet's disease manifestations: an analysis of the German registry and meta-analysis of data from the literature. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2015 Jan;54(1):121–133. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keu266.
  10. Tursen U, Gurler A, Boyvat A. Evaluation of clinical findings according to sex in 2313 Turkish patients with Behcet’s disease. Int J Dermatol. 2003 May;42:346–351. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-4362.2003.01777.x.
  11. Ishido T, Horita N, Takeuchi M, Kawagoe T, Shibuya E, Yamane T, Hayashi T, Meguro A, Ishido M, Minegishi K, Yoshimi R, Kirino Y, Kato S, Arimoto J, Ishigatsubo Y, Takeno M, Kurosawa M, Kaneko T, Mizuki N. Clinical manifestations of Behçet's disease depending on sex and age: results from Japanese nationwide registration. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2017 Nov;56(11):1918–1927. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kex267.
  12. Attia DHS, Abdel Noor RA. Severe Behçet's disease equally affects both genders in Egyptian patients: A multicentre retrospective follow-up study. Reumatismo. 2020 Dec;71(4):218–225. doi: 10.4081/reumatismo.2020.1294.
  13. International Study Group for Behcet’s Disease. Criteria for diagnosis of Behcet’s disease. Lancet. 1990 Apr;335:1078–1080. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(90)92643-V.
  14. Davatchi F, Assaad‐Khalil S, Calamia K, Crook J, Sadeghi-Abdollahi B, Shams H, Al-Dalaan A, Maslyanskaya S, Tuba M, Foroozan R, Nadji A, Yurdakul S, Zouboulis CC, Banifatemi F, Pfadenhauer K, Cho S, Bang D, Sakane T, Kim DY, Joseph A, Kaklamani V, Chams-Davatchi C, Direskeneli H, Hamuryudan V, Gül A, Yazici H, Calamia K. The International Criteria for Behçet’s Disease (ICBD): a collaborative study of 27 countries on the sensitivity and specificity of the new criteria. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2014 Mar;28:338–347. doi: 10.1111/jdv.12107.
  15. Ugurlu N, Bozkurt S, Bacanli A, Akman-Karakas A, Uzun S, Alpsoy E. The natural course and factors affecting severity of Behçet’s disease: a single-center cohort of 368 patients. Rheumatol Int. 2015 Dec;35:2103–2107. doi: 10.1007/s00296-015-3292-2.
  16. Ocak T, Lermı N, Yılmaz Bozkurt Z, Yagız B, Coskun BN, Dalkılıc E, Pehlıvan Y. Pan-immune-inflammation value could be a new marker to differentiate between vascular Behçet's disease and non-vascular Behçet's disease. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2024 Mar;28(5):1751–1759. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202403_35299.
  17. Gürler A, Boyvat A, Türsen U. Clinical manifestations of Behçet’s disease: an analysis of 2147 patients. Yonsei Med J. 1997 Aug;38:423–427. doi: 10.3349/ymj.1997.38.6.423.
  18. Nakae K, Masaki F, Hashimoto T, Inaba G, Mochizuki M, Sakane T. Recent epidemiological features of Behçet’s disease in Japan. In: Godeau P, Wechsler B, editors. Behçet’s disease. Amsterdam: Excerpta Medica, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.; 1993. p. 145–151.
  19. de Menthon M, Lavalley MP, Maldini C, Guillevin L, Mahr A. HLA-B51/B5 and the risk of Behcet’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control genetic association studies. Arthritis Rheum. 2009 Oct;61:1287–1296. doi: 10.1002/art.24642.
  20. Maldini C, Lavalley MP, Cheminant M, de Menthon M, Mahr A. Relationships of HLA-B51 or B5 genotype with Behcet’s disease clinical characteristics: systematic review and meta-analyses of observational studies. Rheumatology. 2012 May;51:887–900. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/ker359.
  21. Hatemi G, Yazici Y, Yazici H. Behçet’s syndrome. Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 2013 May;39:245–261. doi: 10.1016/j.rdc.2013.01.002.
  22. Gül A, Inanç M, Öcal L, Aral O, Konice M. Familial aggregation of Behcet's disease in Turkey. Ann Rheum Dis. 2000 Aug;59(8):622–625. doi: 10.1136/ard.59.8.622.
  23. Yavuz S, Ozilhan G, Elbir Y, Aydin SZ, Tugal-Tutkun I, Direskeneli H. Activation of neutrophils by testosterone in Behcet’s disease. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2007 Nov-Dec;25(Suppl 45):S46–S51.