Pregnancy and Behcet’s Disease: Obstetric outcomes of 33 patients

Abstract

Objective: Behcet's Disease is a chronic multisystemic inflammatory vasculitis and presents with relapsing-remitting oral and genital ulcers accompanied by iridocyclitis. Although Behcet's Disease affects people worldwide, it is seen commonly in Mediterranean, Middle East and Far East. Material and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 33 cases of Behcet's disease with antenatal follow-up and deliveries performed between January 2012 and May 2017 in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, division of perinatology of our hospital. Results: We observed that 27.2\% of patients did not need treatment, while 72.8\% of patients had colchicine, azathioprine, prednisolone, interferon-alpha, adalimumab and combination of these drugs as medical treatment. Only 8 of the 33 patients (24.2\%) had relapse during follow-up period. Mean gestational age at time of delivery was 38.5 +/- 2.6 weeks of gestation and the mean birth weight was 3244 +/- 681 grams. Preterm delivery rates before 37 and 34 weeks of gestation were observed in 9\% and 3\% of patients, respectively. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) was observed in three cases (9\%) and there was only one case (3\%) of preeclampsia. Conclusions: Behcet's Disease is not associated with unfavorable outcomes in pregnancy in most of the cases. Disease is in remission stage in most of the cases. Adverse effects of the medications on fetus, used to treat Behcet's Disease were not observed. Hence, Behcet's Disease affect women of childbearing age, it will continue to be an issue in pregnancy. Large-scale prospective controlled studies where information is based on more robust bases are needed to determine the pregnancy outcomes in Behcet's Disease.