Clinical characteristics and prognosis of Neuro-Behçet’s disease

Abstract

Objective: Neuro-Behçet’s disease (NBD) is a rare manifestation of Behçet’s disease (BD) and may causesevere disability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment response in patients with NBDand to investigate the parameters that may influence the prognosis of the disease in patients withsevere to mild-moderate disability.Methods: The files of 60 patients admitted to our outpatient clinic for NBD between January 2007 andJune 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. We compared the BD duration, time to NBD, NBD type andcourse, clinical findings of BD, functional neurological system involvement, localization of lesions onbrain MRI, and all the medications between the severe and mild-moderate disability groups.Results: The mean time to the onset of NBD was significantly longer (17.8±4.6 years) and the meanage was significantly higher (50.25±9.1 years) in patients with severe disability than in those withmild-moderate disability (7.5±8.0 years and 37.5±10.9 years; p=0.01 and p=0.03, respectively). More-over, hemispheric involvement was significantly associated with severe disability (p=0.006). No differ-ence was found with regard toother investigated parameters between the groups.Conclusion: We believe that severe neurological disability may be associated with older age at the on-set of NBD or longer time to NBD and hemispheric lesions on brain MRI. However, our results shouldbe cautiously evaluated with further research.