Behcet's disease and endocrine system

Abstract

Behcet's disease (BD) is a chronic disease which is characterized by recurrent oral apthous ulcerations, recurrent genital ulcerations, skin eruptions, ocular involvements and other various systemic manifestations as well as systemic vasculitis. Endocrine involvement in BD regarding various systems can be seen. Hypophysis is one of the best and dense vascularized organs of the body, thus it is likely that it can be affected by BD. Not only anterior hypophysis functions, but posterior hypophysis functions as well can be affected. As BD is a disease of autoimmune process, it may be possible that adrenal insufficiency or alterations in the cortisol levels could be expected. Another concern is whether or not there is insulin resistance in patients with BD. The avaliable data suggests that there is an increased susceptibility to insulin resistance in patients with BD. © 2012 Onur Ozhan and Kerem Sezer.