European Journal of Radiology 70 (2009) 317–319 Pulmonary alterations in Behcet’s disease Cetin Celenk a,∗ , Fatma Aydin b , Meftun Unsal c a Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, Tip Fak¨ ultesi, Radyoloji, 55139 Samsun, Turkey b Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139 Samsun, Turkey c Department of Chest Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139 Samsun, Turkey Received 28 September 2007; received in revised form 11 January 2008; accepted 28 January 2008 Abstract Purpose: This study aims to demonstrate pulmonary alterations (PA) in patients with Behcet’s disease by using CT. Materials and methods: CTs of 50 patients with Behcet’s disease and 20 others in a control group have been evaluated retrospectively for PA (septal, reticular, nodular, atelectatic opacities). Results: Eight out of 50 patients (16%) with Behcet’s disease showed PA. Three out of 20 (15%) in the control group showed PA. No differences were observed between Behcet’s disease patients and the control group regarding pulmonary alterations (p = 0.917). No differences were observed in the disease duration, ages and sex in either group in those with and without PA. Conclusion: Pulmonary alterations can be seen in patients with Behcet’s disease, but these alterations are not significant. © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Behcet; Computerized tomography; Pulmonary alterations 1. Introduction Because patients with Behcet’s disease have no pathog- nomonic symptoms or findings that would show up in laboratory tests, diagnosis is made according to the criteria set by the Inter- national Study Group (ISG) in 1990 [1]. Behcet’s disease is a chronic, relapsing, multisystemic, and inflammatory disease. It causes mucocutaneous, ocular, vas- cular, articular, gastrointestinal, urogenital, pulmonary, and neurological abnormalities [2,3]. Etiopathogenesis is still a subject of study. Infectious agents, immune mechanisms, and genetic factors are held responsible. However, Behcet’s disease is described as a type of systemic vasculitis. Actual prevalence of PA is unknown in Behcet’s disease because there are no prospective studies where pulmonary symptoms are evaluated in randomly selected patient groups. Although there are frequent pulmonary abnormalities in those with vasculitis, pulmonary parenchymal abnormalities are not ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 362 4576000/2656; fax: +90 362 4576041. E-mail addresses: ccelenk@omu.edu.tr, ccelenk@hotmail.com (C. Celenk), bennet@mynet.com (F. Aydin), munsal@omu.edu.tr (M. Unsal). frequent in Behcet’s disease. The reported prevalence is between 5 and 10% [4,5]. Some authors have reported the pulmonary parenchymal alterations percentage in Behcet’s disease as 12–38–59% [6–8]. Recently, CT is a preferred monitoring modality as a non- invasive method in the evaluation of all pulmonary parenchyma and pleura [9,10]. The purpose of this study is to evaluate PA and to compare the results with disease duration, age, and sex, using CT. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Patient population Fifty patients diagnosed with Behcet’s disease, according to the ISG [1] criterion, were included in this study. Patients were chosen from a group of persons having no granulomatous or mycobacterial lung disease findings and those who requested a routine chest CT in a dermatology clinic. Ages, sexes, disease duration and clinical findings of the patients were recorded. The period since the date of the first diagnosis was set as the disease duration. 0720-048X/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ejrad.2008.01.049