Background/Purpose: One of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in Behcet’s disease (BD), especially in young males of Mediterranean origin, is vascular involvement. A limited data suggests also a high prevelance of venous insufficiency (VI) and some cases of asymptomatic thrombosis in BD. In this study, we aimed to investigate prospectively asymptomatic venous disease by venous doppler ultrasonography (US) in patients with BD without known vascular disease.
Methods: The study included 93 patients with BD (M/F: 45/48, age: 36.4±10 years), 97 patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS)(M/F: 50/47, age: 37.5±9.5 years) and 43 healthy control subjects (M/F: 25/18, age: 34.7±4.5 years). Vessels of both upper and lower extremities were examined while the subjects were in supine position by venous doppler US. CEAP severity score was used to evaluate the severity of the venous insuficiency.
Results: Upper extremity veins were totally normal in all patients and controls. We also did not detect any “silent thrombosis” in study groups. Venous insufficiency findings in lower extremity were detected in 32.2% (n=30) in the BD group, 28.8% (n=28) in AS group and 9.3% (n=4) in the healthy control group. Both BD and AS patients had significantly higher VI rates than healthy controls (p=0.007 and 0.015). The rate of VI was similar between patients with BD and AS (p=0.64). Similarly, CEAP severity score in BD (0.34 (0-3)) was significantly higher than controls (0)(p=0.008), but similar to AS (0.18 (0-39)(p=0.18). No correlations were present between C-reactive protein elevations (>5 mg/L) and VI in patients with both BD (p=0.546) and AS (p=0.754).
Conclusion: A high prevelance of venous insufficiency was present in both BD and AS patients without asymptomatic thrombosis. Presence of VI also in AS, a disease without a major tendency to venous thrombosis, suggests that chronic inflammation might cause a mild insufficiency detected only by Power US in venous vessels. Long-term consequences of this finding requires further follow-up studies.
Disclosure:
F. Alibaz-Oner,
None;
E. Karatay,
None;
I. N. Akpinar,
None;
T. Ergun,
None;
H. Direskeneli,
None.
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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/evaluation-of-asymptomatic-venous-disease-by-venous-doppler-ultrasonography-in-patients-with-behcets-disease/