Mucocutaneous Involvement in Behçet's Disease: How Systemic Treatment Has Changed in the Last Decades and Future Perspectives

Mediators Inflamm. 2015:2015:451675. doi: 10.1155/2015/451675. Epub 2015 Jun 22.

Abstract

Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystemic disorder of unknown etiology characterized by the "triple symptom complex" consisting of recurrent oral aphthosis, genital ulcers, and chronic relapsing bilateral uveitis. Recurrent mucocutaneous lesions are generally considered the hallmark of the disease, being the most common symptoms presenting at the onset of disease. Although the improvement of knowledge about the pathogenetic mechanism added important changes in the treatment management of BD clinical manifestations, thus avoiding the appearance of serious life-threatening complications which are disease related, the mucocutaneous lesions are still the most nagging clinical manifestations to be treated. In this work we reviewed the current state of knowledge regarding the therapeutic approaches for mucocutaneous lesions of BD mainly based on controlled studies to provide a rational framework for selecting the appropriate therapy for treating these troublesome features of the disease.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / therapeutic use
  • Azathioprine / therapeutic use
  • Behcet Syndrome / drug therapy*
  • Behcet Syndrome / pathology
  • Colchicine / therapeutic use
  • Dapsone / therapeutic use
  • Humans
  • Interferon-alpha / therapeutic use
  • Interleukin-1 / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Recurrence
  • Skin / pathology*
  • Thalidomide / therapeutic use
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / antagonists & inhibitors

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Interferon-alpha
  • Interleukin-1
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
  • Thalidomide
  • Dapsone
  • Azathioprine
  • Colchicine