Regional distinction for the clinical severity of Behcet's disease in Korea: four university-based medical centre studies

Abstract

Objective. To analyse the clinical manifestations and severity of Behcet's disease (BD) in Korea according to geographic region of residence, and to identify risk factors associated with clinical severity. Methods. We enrolled 246 BD patients (88 males) who fulfilled the criteria of the International Study Group for BD. These patients were assigned into two groups: a Western group comprising 127 residents in west regions and an Eastern group comprising 119 residents of the SoBaek Mountains situated in the center of Korea. Clinical severity was assessed using a severity scoring index of BD. Results. BD patients from the Western group had a greater prevalence of typical skin lesions, deep vein thrombosis, gastrointestinal bleeding, posterior/panuveitis, and retinal vasculitis than did the Eastern group (p<0.001, p=0.009, p=0.032, and p=0.007, respectively). The Western group also had higher severity scores than did the Eastern group (5.88 +/- 2.5 for the Western group vs. 4.94 +/- 2.6 for the Eastern group, p=0.004). Male BD patients had higher severity scores than did female patients (6.14 +/- 2.8 vs. 5.03 +/- 2.4, p=0.001). The disease duration of BD in the Western group showed a significant association with total severity scores (r=0231, p=0.009), hut this was not observed for the Eastern group. Conclusions. We found distinct differences in the clinical manifestations as well as severity of BD according to geographic region in Korean BD patients. Males, particularly those from the Western region of Korea, had significantly higher severity scores than did females.