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Seasonal Variation in Flares of Intestinal Behçet’s Disease

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Abstract

Background

There have been numerous investigations into the seasonality of several autoimmune diseases and inflammatory bowel disease in an effort to better understand the epidemiology and pathogenesis of these conditions. However, the relationship between the season and disease activity of intestinal Behçet’s disease has not been investigated.

Aims

This study aimed to evaluate the seasonal pattern of exacerbations of intestinal Behçet’s disease.

Methods

We evaluated 268 consecutive patients with intestinal Behçet’s disease who were diagnosed and treated between November 1990 and March 2010 at Severance Hospital, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. Patient demographics, onset of symptoms, total number of relapses, and the month of each relapse were recorded. The relationship between the season and flares of intestinal Behçet’s disease was analyzed.

Results

A total of 339 relapses occurred in 142 patients (53 %). The median age at diagnosis was 39 (10–73) years; the median follow-up duration was 74 (7–372) months. The peak seasons for relapse were spring and autumn, especially the months of May and September (p value <0.001). Compared with winter, spring and autumn had higher rates of flares (HR 1.92 and 1.91, respectively, p value <0.001).

Conclusions

In this study, intestinal Behçet’s disease demonstrated a biphasic pattern (peaks in spring and autumn) in exacerbations of disease, suggesting that seasonal or exogenous factors may be involved in the flares of intestinal Behçet’s disease.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a Grant of the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (Grant No. HI13C1345), and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (MSIP) (2013R1A2A2A01067123).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine and Institute of Gastroenterology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-752, Korea

    Jin Ha Lee, Jae Hee Cheon, Sung Pil Hong, Tae Il Kim & Won Ho Kim

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  1. Jin Ha Lee
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Correspondence to Jae Hee Cheon.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest, financial, or otherwise, with respect to this work.

Ethical statement

This study was approved by the Human Research Review Committee of Severance Hospital, Yonsei University, Korea (4-2010-0822).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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Lee, J.H., Cheon, J.H., Hong, S.P. et al. Seasonal Variation in Flares of Intestinal Behçet’s Disease. Dig Dis Sci 60, 3373–3378 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-015-3863-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-015-3863-x

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