Behcet's disease

Behret (1937) described a chronic, relapsing complex of oral ulceration, genital ulceration, and ocular inflammation. It has been recognized that many other systems may be involved, including the skin, cardiovascular, central nervous, and gastrointestinal systems, and the joints, together with venous thrombosis (Enoch, 1969; Mason and Barnes, 1969; Mowat and Hothersall, 1969); Francis, 1970; Kalbian and Challis, 1970; Haim, Barzilai, and Hazani, 1971). Thus, the findings may vary greatly from the triad originally described. Some authors consider Beh*et's disease a general systemic disease affecting visceral organs on a wide scale, and the literature has been extensively reviewed (Francis, 1970; O'Duffy, Carney, and Deodhar, 1971). Despite the many theories put forward the aetiology remains unknown. Histological changes are not specific and no diagnostic test is available. B0e, Dalgaard, and Scott (1958) described several cases of a mucocutaneous-ocular syndrome with intestinal involvement and said that involvement of the gastrointestinal tract also was not infrequent. Beh9et's disease, which was associated with necrotizing oesophagitis, ulcers of the oesophagus, stomach, jejunum, ileum, or large bowel, or segmental ileitis has been reported (Bechgaard, 1940; Jensen, 1944; Ramsay, 1967; Empey, 1972). However,