To evaluate the prevalence of the clinical findings in Behcet's disease, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 2147 Behcet patients from 9 to 87 years of age (mean age 38.3 years) followed up during the years 1976 through 1997. One thousand ninety three patients were male and 1054 patients were female. The male/female ratio was 1.03. The mean age at onset was 25.6 years. A family history of Behcet's disease was present in 7.3% of the patients. Positive pathergy was found in 1220 (56.8%) patients. All of the patients had mucocutaneous lesions. Out of the 2147 patients the disease manifested itself as only mucocutaneous involvement in 1168 patients. The prevalence of systemic manifestations was found as follows: 28.9% ocular involvement, 16.0% musculoskeletal involvement, 16.8% vascular involvement, 2.8% gastrointestinal involvement, 2.2% neurological involvement. Pulmonary involvement was seen in 20 (1.0%) patients, cardiac involvement was seen in 3 patients and renal involvement was observed in 2 patients. Male patients had vascular involvement 5.02, neurologic involvement 2.21 and ocular involvement 1.98 times more frequently than female patients.
Adolescence ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Behcet's Syndrome/complications* ; Child ; Female ; Human ; Male ; Middle Age

Superficial mycosis, including dermatophytic infections, tinea versicolor, and cutaneous candidiasis is mostly limited to the outer layers of the skin, nails, and mucous membranes. In this study, Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations were compared between 42 patients with superficial fungal disease and 27 control subjects. Both the patients and controls were found to be normolipemic. The patients with superficial fungal disease had significantly higher concentrations of high-density cholesterol (HDL) compared to the control group (p=0.0462). However, there was no difference in the serum triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol concentrations. A significantly higher incidence of heterozygosity E2/3 was found in the patients (p=0.0228), and significantly lower incidence of homozygosity E3/3 in all patients, and those with candidiasis and dermatophytosis (p=0.0139, 0.0194 and 0.0337, respectively) compared to the control group. The E3/4 genotype differences between patients and controls were not statistically significant. There were slight differences in the allele frequencies between the two groups, but these did not reach statistically significant levels. It was concluded that the presence of apoE2/3 genotype, high HDL-cholesterol levels and the absence of apoE3/3 genotype can be regarded as risk factors for superficial fungal disease, especially dermatophytosis.
Apolipoproteins E/*genetics ; Candidiasis, Cutaneous/blood/epidemiology/*genetics ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease/epidemiology ; Genotype ; Human ; Lipids/*blood ; *Polymorphism (Genetics) ; Prospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Tinea Versicolor/blood/epidemiology/*genetics