The vascular manifestations of Behcet's disease: angiographic and CT findings

The purpose was to evaluate angiographic and CT manifestations of vascular Behcet's disease. The medical records of 64 patients with Behcet's disease, treated in our hospital during the last 4 years, were reviewed. 37 patient s underwent angiography or CT in the symptomatic regions because of symptom s or clinical signs of vascular involvement by Behcet's disease. 33 (male:f emale ratio 28:5; mean age 35 years) of the 37 patients demonstrated vascul ar involvement, which was surgically proven (18 patients) or diagnosed on a ngiography (15 patients). Angiograms and CT images of these 33 patients wer e retrospectively analysed for lesion type, location, extent and other char acteristic findings of vascular involvement. 12 patients had only venous le sions, 11 had only arterial lesions and 10 had both arterial and venous les ions. The major angiographic findings of vascular Behcet's disease were acu te or chronic thrombosis in deep veins of the lower extremities (19 patient s), in the inferior vena cava (4 patients) and in the superior vena cava (2 patients), pseudoaneurysms of large or medium sized arteries (11 patients) , and occlusions/stenoses of distal run-off arteries (13 patients). Common CT findings were obliterated deep veins (8 patients) and non-calcified thic kened aneurysmal walls (9 patients), with or without contrast enhancement. The combination of these angiographic and CT findings with clinical manifes tations are helpful in distinguishing vascular Behcet's disease from other vasculitides.