Background/Purpose:  Widely various frequencies of sacroiliitis or spondylitis have been reported in different regions of patients with Behcet’s Disease (BD). Although BD is also called Silk Road Disease, there are no reports about association of axial arthritis in patients with BD in China.

Methods:  To determine the real frequency in our region, we followed up the disease history and routinely performed the axial joints CT scan in the 192 patients with BD who were treated in our hospital from January 2010 to June 2015.

Results: Among them, 28 cases showed sacroiliitis before follow-up (14.58%) and increased to 112 cases after (58.33%). Besides sacroiliitis, 192 cases had recurrent oral aphthous ulcers (100%), 111 cases skin lesions (57.8%), 117 cases genital ulcerations (60.9%), 70 cases ocular symptoms (36.5%), 78 cases peripheral arthritis (40.6%),76 cases axial skeleton involvement (39.6%), and 35 cases heel pain (18.2%). The 112 cases were found different degree of pathological changes of sacroiliac joint by CT scan. Consistently, the frequency of BD patients with SpA increased from 3.6% (ASAS) or 2.6% (Amor) before to 42.19% (ASAS) or 29.69 % (Amor) after follow-up.

Conclusion:  The frequency of sacroiliitis and SpA in BD patients was increased by following up disease history and routinely examining sacroiliac joint by CT scan. Moreover, the frequency in our region was significantly higher than that in other regions reported before. All above suggest that missed diagnosis is also a possible reason for the lower frequency of axial arthritis and the BD patients in our region may have more severe manifestations.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/increase-of-sacroiliitis-by-follow-up-and-routine-ct-in-patients-with-behcets-disease/