Epidemiologic and Clinical Survey of Behcet's Disease in Korea: the First Multicenter Study.
10.3346/jkms.2001.16.5.615
- Author:
Dongsik BANG
1
;
Ju Hee LEE
;
Eun So LEE
;
Sungnack LEE
;
Jong Soo CHOI
;
Young Keun KIM
;
Baik Kee CHO
;
Jai Kyoung KOH
;
Young Ho WON
;
Nack In KIM
;
Seok Don PARK
;
Hong Jun AHN
;
Yoon Woo LEE
;
Han Young WANG
;
Won Woo LEE
;
Hee Chul EUN
;
Eun Sup SONG
;
Sung Won LEE
;
Chang Woo LEE
;
Chong Ju LEE
;
Jae Ho PARK
;
Yeong Wook SONG
;
Sang Tae KIM
;
Chong Yeol KIM
;
Jang Kyu PARK
;
Kyung Sool KWON
Author Information
1. Department of Dermatology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Korea.
- Publication Type:Original Article ; Multicenter Study ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords:
Behcet's Disease;
Multicenter Study, Korea
- MeSH:
Adolescence;
Adult;
Aged;
Behcet's Syndrome/complications/*epidemiology;
Child;
Child, Preschool;
Female;
Human;
Infant;
Korea/epidemiology;
Male;
Middle Age;
Prevalence;
Retrospective Studies;
Sex Distribution
- From:Journal of Korean Medical Science
2001;16(5):615-618
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
The prevalence of Behcet's disease is the highest in the East Asian and the Medi-terranean countries. Behcet's disease is also distributed in the Asian countries, but the nationwide survey has not been performed in Korea yet. The Korean Study Group for Behcet's Disease, founded in 1999, conducted a multicenter, retrospective survey on epidemiologic and clinical features of the patients with Behcet's disease from 20 hospitals around the nation from 1997 to 1999. Of 3,497 patients, 1,527 were classified into complete or incomplete type of Behcet's disease according to the revised Shimizu's classification. The sex ratio was 1:1.75 with the female predominance. Geographical distribution showed the highest frequency in Seoul (38.5%). Clinically, 98.8% had oral ulcers, 83.2% had genital ulcers, 84.3% had skin lesions and 50.9% had ocular lesions. As for the minor clinical manifestations, articular symptoms were the most frequent. The pathergy test showed positive in 15.4% of patients and revealed a higher positive rate in males (20.2%) than in females (12.7%). In conclusion, we performed the first multicenter study on Behcet's disease in Korea and revealed the female predominance, higher frequency of ocular lesions, and lower positivity of pathergy test in the patients.
