Electrodiagnostic study of peripheral nervous system in Behcet’s disease

Introduction: Bechcet’s disease (BD) is a chronic disease with multiple organ involvement such as central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). Involvement of PNS has been reported controversially and uncommon in textbooks and literatures. The aim of this study in to evaluate the auxiliary role of electrodiagnosis in early detection of PNS involvement to prevent neuropathy in Behcet’s disease. Methods: This case-control survey included 40 patients with BD and 40 (control) healthy individuals. Inclusion criteria was lack of any disease and no history of contact with probable causative agent for neuropathy. We studied distal latency (DL), nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and amplitude (Amp) of median, ulnar, tibial, deep peroneal, superficial peroneal and sural nerves also we studied GS H-Reflex of tibial nerve and F-wave of ulnar and tibial nerves. T-test was used for data analysis. Results: We found reduced sensory nerve action potentials (SNAP) amplitude of ulnar, median, sural and superficial peroneal nerves comparing to control group (P<0.05). High prevalence of entrapment neuropathy in median (carpal tunnel syndrome) and ulnar (cubital tunnel syndrome) nerves in these patients were 35% and 25% respectively, which is among normal range and had no statistically significant difference with the control group. Conclusion: These findings suggest that patients with Bechet’s vasculitis undergo electrodiagnosis before and after treatment with neurotoxic drugs for prevention and early detection of peripheral neuropathy. We recommend that neurotoxic drugs such as colchicine, thalidomide and dapsone should not be, if possible, prescribed in BD, because these patients are prone to sensory and entrapment neuropathies.