S-64 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. Emire Seyahi, MD, Professor of Medicine Huseyin Karaaslan, MD, Fellow Serdal Ugurlu, MD, Associate Professor Hasan Yazici, MD, Professor of Medicine Please address correspondence to: Emire Seyahi, MD, Halaskargazi Cad. no: 209-211, Huzur ap. D: 2, Sisli, 34360 Istanbul, Turkey. E-mail: eseyahi@yahoo.com Received on March 22, 2013; accepted in revised form on July 5, 2013. Clin Exp Rheumatol 2013; 31 (Suppl. 77): S64-S67. © Copyright CliniCal and ExpErimEntal rhEumatology 2013. Key words: fever, Behçet’s syndrome Competing interests: none declared. ABSTRACT Objectives. Fever is taken to be rare in Behçet’s syndrome (BS) and when present it is usually considered to be associated with vascular disease. The aim of this study was to formally inves- tigate the presence of fever as a clini- cal feature in BS patients and suitable controls. Methods. The study consisted of 2 parts. In the frst part, 500 patients with BS, 94 with familial Mediterranean fe- ver (FMF), 100 with ankylosing spon- dylitis (AS), and 72 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) along with 100 healthy controls (HC) were surveyed with the help of a questionnaire for the history of periodic fever episodes. In the second part, body temperature was measured in 98 newly diagnosed BS patients having at least one active BS lesion and 61 HC. Temperature was measured 3 times and the highest read- ing was used in the analyses. Results. First part: history of fever episodes was present in 22% patients with BS, 87% with FMF, 33% with SLE and 8% with AS. None of the HC re- called a fever episode. Patients with BS who reported fever episodes were more likely to have major organ involvement such as vascular, neurological or joint involvement. Second part: The mean body tempera- ture reading was similar (albeit statis- tically different) among patients with BS (36.72±0.42ºC) compared to that of the HC (36.56± 0.27ºC) (p=0.004). Conclusion. In this study, 22% of pa- tients with BS reported a history of fe- ver episodes. As previously reported, fever attacks seemed to be associated strongly with vascular, neurological or joint involvement. The increase in tem- perature accompanying active BS le- sions was modest even when the high- est values were considered. Introduction Fever is taken to be rare in Behçet’s syndrome (1-4). However, there are several case reports describing fever especially among patients with vas- cular or neurological involvement (5- 10). Recently, we have reported fever among our patients with pulmonary vascular disease (11). Finally, there are even case reports identifying BS as a rare cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO) (12-15). In the current work we aimed to re- assess the frequency of fever in BS, as we believe for the frst time, in a formal protocol, with suitable control groups. We also measured body temperature in newly diagnosed BS patients with ac- tive disease not using immunosuppres- sives or corticosteroids to assess wheth- er active lesions of BS are accompanied by an increase in temperature. Patients and methods The study consisted of 2 parts: In the frst part, a history of recurrent fever episodes was surveyed with the help of a questionnaire in consecutive BS, fa- milial Mediterranean fever (FMF), sys- temic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients along with healthy controls (HC). BS, FMF, SLE and AS patients were regu- lar attendees of either the dedicated BS or the rheumatology outpatient clinic at Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty of Uni- versity of Istanbul. The HC were appar- ently healthy volunteers chosen among the hospital staff. Answers to ‘have you ever had recurrent fever episodes?’ question were classifed as ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘do not know’. For the sake of sim- plicity, the responses of those who were unable to remember whether they had had fever were considered negative. Episodes of recurrent fever were identi- fed as fever attacks a) recurring at least 3 times a year, b) present in any given time interval in the past and c) not as- sociated with a specifc infection. Ad- ditionally, symptoms present during fe- ver episodes were recorded among BS patients. Clinical characteristics of BS patients were obtained from the charts. Fever in Behçet’s syndrome E. Seyahi, H. Karaaslan, S. Ugurlu, H. Yazici