Objective: To determine the risk of clinical cardiovascular disease in middle-aged patients with Behcet's syndrome (BS) compared with gender-matched non-BS subjects.
Methods: The prevalence of angina, myocardial infarction (MI), doctor diagnosed ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and intermittent claudication were sought by the Rose Angina Questionnaire in 225 (141 M/84 F) BS patients (mean age: 52 +/- 8) with BS and 117 (74 M/43 F) controls (mean age: 50 +/- 5). Information on atherosclerotic risk factors was also collected.
Results: The prevalence of angina, MI and doctor-diagnosed IHD were not different between BS patients and non-BS controls in the whole study population and when males and females were separately analysed. Angina tended to be more common among females compared with males among both patients and controls. Intermittent claudication was found to be significantly more common among BS patients, especially in males with venous disease.
Conclusions: The findings in this cross-sectional clinical study are in line with previous observations not indicating accelerated atherosclerosis in BS. Intermittent claudication might not be a suitable tool for the detection of peripheral atherosclerotic disease especially among BS patients having venous disease.