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Clinical characteristics of pulmonary artery involvement in patients with Behçet’s syndrome: single-centre experience of 61 patients

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Abstract

Objective

To report the clinical characteristics of pulmonary artery involvement (PAI) in patients with Behçet’s syndrome (BS) and to define the predictors of relapses.

Methods

We performed retrospective analysis of BS patients with PAI who fulfilled international study group criteria. Among 460 patients with vascular Behçet’s syndrome (VBS), 66 were diagnosed with PAI. For final analyses, 61 patients with PAI were included who had at least 2 follow-up visits (72.1% male, mean age at BS diagnosis 29.34 ± 10.1 years). The patient data were recorded. Relapse was defined as the reoccurrence of vascular event in any vascular structure. Factors associated with relapse were assessed by logistic regression analysis.

Results

There were no differences considering demographic and clinical features of the patients with and without PAI in the VBS group, except that intracardiac thrombosis was more common in the patients with PAI (19.7% vs 0.3%). Among 61 patients, 50 (82.0%) had isolated pulmonary artery thrombosis (PAT), whereas 11 (18.0%) had pulmonary artery aneurysm with or without PAT. Twenty-four (39.3%) patients experienced vascular relapse during median follow-up of 65.9 (Q1-Q3: 20.1–109.0) months. To define the factors associated with relapses, patients with isolated PAT were analysed. On multivariable logistic regression analysis, older age at BS diagnosis and anticoagulation usage seemed to be protective (OR: 0.92, 95% CI 0.86–1.02, OR: 0.34, 95% CI 0.09–1.33, respectively).

Conclusion

Our results indicate a higher frequency of intracardiac thrombosis in BS patients with PAI and possible efficacy of anticoagulation usage in preventing relapses.

Key Points

• This study shows that intracardiac and intracranial thromboses are seen more frequently in patients with PAI and the prevalence of pulmonary artery thrombosis has been increasing in the case of PAI. Furthermore, our report indicates that anticoagulation might be effective in preventing further vascular relapses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    Didem Sahin Eroglu, Murat Torgutalp, Serdar Sezer, Mucteba Enes Yayla, Tahsin Murat Turgay, Gulay Kinikli & Askin Ates

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    Serdar Baysal

  3. Department of Radiology, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    Anil Colaklar & Caglar Uzun

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  1. Didem Sahin Eroglu
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Correspondence to Didem Sahin Eroglu.

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Eroglu, D.S., Torgutalp, M., Baysal, S. et al. Clinical characteristics of pulmonary artery involvement in patients with Behçet’s syndrome: single-centre experience of 61 patients. Clin Rheumatol 40, 4127–4134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-021-05748-x

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