Behçet's disease

Abstract

1. All patients with Behçet's disease had had an illnes of the joints similar to polyarticular rheumatism. 2. The disease can be diagnosed and the virus can be isolated from the blood of patients who have aphthae in their mouth and on their genital organs but in whom the eye manifestations have not yet appeared. 3. Observation of the disease in three brothers indicates that it is communicable. 4. Viremia is present in the patients and its degree may be correlated with the clinical manifestations of the disease. 5. As the degree of viremia increases in the blood, the titrate of the complement-fixation reaction decreases; on the contrary, as the degree of viremia decreases, the titrate of the complement-fixation reaction increases. 6. The virus is excreted in urine and is thus eliminated from the circulatory system. 7. Cortisone treatment is contraindicated, since it increases the clinical manifestations and decreases the titrate of antibodies in the blood. © 1960 Dr. W. Junk N.V.