pathergy test (pt): sensitivity and selectivity in 544 patients with behcet's disease (bd) and in 147 controls

the skin hyperreactivity, detected by the pathergy test, is a well known phenomenon in behcet's disease. two different methods were used for the pathergy test. a) a needle prick, b) an intadermal injection of normal saline. in this study 83% of behcet's patients had a positive pathergy test. where as 44% was of pustule type and 39% of papule type. in 26% of patients the papule formation was observed with both methods. in the control groupe 16% of subjects had a positive pathergy test. all were of papule type . only 3% of them demonstrated a positive reaction with both methods. the sensitivity of the pathergy test, in this study, was 83% with a specificity of 84%. from these results we may conclude that a positive pathergy test of pustule type, with one of the major manifestations of behcet's disease, (as proposed in disease). the papule type reaction, by both methods, may have the same diagnostic value as pustule type