TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence of Behcet's disease among adult patients consulting three major clinics in a Druze town in Israel
AU - Klein, Pinchas
AU - Weinberger, Abraham
AU - Altmann, Vered Jean
AU - Halabi, Salim
AU - Fachereldeen, Saeed
AU - Krause, Ilan
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - To evaluate the prevalence of Behçet's disease (BD) in a Druze community in Israel, we conducted a twostage clinic-based survey in an Israeli Druze town. The first stage aimed to identify patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) in all patients who visited three of the largest clinics in the town during a period of 6 months. The second stage aimed to identify those patients with RAS who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for BD according to the International Study Group (ISG) criteria. One thousand and eighty-three out of about 4,000 registered subjects were interviewed, 63 of whom had RAS (5.8%). Two patients fulfilled the ISG criteria for BD, resulting in a calculated prevalence in the range of 2:1,083-2:4,000, i.e., 50-185:100,000. Another two patients with oral and genital aphthosis but without eye or skin lesions were diagnosed as suspected BD. The very high prevalence of BD, as found in our study, places the Druze among the populations with the highest prevalence of the disease all over the world, though selection biases could account for overestimation as well as underestimation of the actual BD prevalence. Our findings call for genetic studies to explore whether there is a genetic predisposition to BD in this population.
AB - To evaluate the prevalence of Behçet's disease (BD) in a Druze community in Israel, we conducted a twostage clinic-based survey in an Israeli Druze town. The first stage aimed to identify patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) in all patients who visited three of the largest clinics in the town during a period of 6 months. The second stage aimed to identify those patients with RAS who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for BD according to the International Study Group (ISG) criteria. One thousand and eighty-three out of about 4,000 registered subjects were interviewed, 63 of whom had RAS (5.8%). Two patients fulfilled the ISG criteria for BD, resulting in a calculated prevalence in the range of 2:1,083-2:4,000, i.e., 50-185:100,000. Another two patients with oral and genital aphthosis but without eye or skin lesions were diagnosed as suspected BD. The very high prevalence of BD, as found in our study, places the Druze among the populations with the highest prevalence of the disease all over the world, though selection biases could account for overestimation as well as underestimation of the actual BD prevalence. Our findings call for genetic studies to explore whether there is a genetic predisposition to BD in this population.
KW - Behcet's disease
KW - Druze
KW - Epidemiology
KW - Oral ulcers
KW - Prevalence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952109052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10067-010-1472-9
DO - 10.1007/s10067-010-1472-9
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AN - SCOPUS:79952109052
SN - 0770-3198
VL - 29
SP - 1163
EP - 1166
JO - Clinical Rheumatology
JF - Clinical Rheumatology
IS - 10
ER -