When these symptoms occur with concurrent mucocutaneous ulcerations, they raise suspicion of acute optic neuropathy in Behçets Disease. Progressive optic atrophy may result in decreased visual acuity or color vision. Intracranial hypertension with papilledema may be present.Episcleritis may occur, which causes eye redness and mild pain, without a significant impact on vision. Bowels
Gastrointestinal (GI) manifestations include abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea with or without blood, and they often involve the ileocecal valve. Some patients with BD experience abdominal tenderness, bloating, and general abdominal discomfort. When mild this can resemble irritable bowel syndrome; more severe cases bear similarities to inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis or Crohns. Lungs
Lung involvement is typically in the form of hemoptysis, pleuritis, cough, or fever, and in severe cases can be life-threatening if the outlet pulmonary artery develops an aneurysm which ruptures causing severe vascular collapse and death from bleeding in the lungs. Nodules, consolidations, cavities and ground glass lesions are common in patients with pulmonary involvement. Pulmonary artery thrombosis may occur. Joints
Arthritis is seen in up to half of people, and is usually a non-erosive poly or oligoarthritis primarily of the large joints of the lower extremities. Brain
Central nervous system (CNS) involvement most often occurs as a chronic meningoencephalitis. Lesions tend to occur in the brainstem, the basal ganglia and deep hemispheric white matter and may resemble those of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Brainstem atrophy is seen in chronic cases.Neurological involvements range from aseptic meningitis to vascular thrombosis such as dural sinus thrombosis and organic brain syndrome manifesting with confusion, seizures, and memory loss. Sudden hearing loss (sensorineural) is often associated with it. They often appear late in the progression of the disease but are associated with a poor prognosis. Heart
Pericarditis is a frequent cardiac manifestation. Chronic aortic regurgitation due to aortic root disease may also be seen. Although infrequent, myocardial infarction (heart attack) with angiographically identified acute coronary artery thrombosis has been reported, including one case with a pathologically demonstrable lesion due to arteritis found at autopsy. Blood vessels
Blood vessel problems are observed in 7–29% of people with arterial lesions representing 15% of vascular lesions. Arterial lesions pose a greater risk. Most common arterial lesions are occlusions or stenosis and aneurysms or pseudoaneurysms. Cause
The cause is not well-defined, but it is primarily characterized by auto-inflammation of the blood vessels. Although sometimes erroneously referred to as a diagnosis of exclusion, the diagnosis can sometimes be reached by pathologic examination of the affected areas.The primary mechanism of the damage is autoimmune, which by definition is an overactive immune system that targets the patients own body. The involvement of a subset of T cells (Th17) seems to be important. The primary cause is not well known. In fact, no one knows yet why the immune system starts to behave this way in Behçets disease.