Pulmonary Arterial Aneurysms and Thrombosis in a Young Male: A Rare Presentation of Behcet's Disease

Abstract

Behcet's disease (BD) is a chronic systemic inflammatory vasculitis with a relapsing and remitting course. The disease predominantly affects males between the ages of 20 and 40 years. The disease is more prevalent in Middle Eastern and Asian countries but is less common in North American countries. BD typically presents as recurrent oro-genital ulcers and ocular inflammation. Pulmonary vasculitis with pulmonary arterial involvement is a unique manifestation, with most pulmonary manifestations occurring later in the disease course. Here, we report a case with pulmonary arterial aneurysms and variable arterial-venous thrombosis in a young African American Male diagnosed with BD after he presented with pulmonary manifestations. This report emphasizes that a high index of suspicion is needed to diagnose a rare condition with such variable manifestations as Behcet's disease and that early detection and immunosuppression therapy can confer improved prognosis.

Keywords: behcet's disease; deep vein thrombosis (dvt); pulmonary artery aneurysm; pulmonary artery thrombosis; vasculitis.