Behçet Disease

Behçet disease is best recognised as a pattern rather than as a single laboratory abnormality: recurrent oral or genital ulceration accompanied by eye, skin, vascular, neurologic, or gastrointestinal inflammation. The same neutrophil-driven vasculitis that produces painful ulcers can threaten vision, the central nervous system, or the integrity of a pulmonary artery. That distinction determines priority. Colchicine is appropriate first-line therapy for mucocutaneous and peripheral joint disease, but organ-threatening disease requires urgent high-dose glucocorticoids and additional immunosuppression. A new visual deficit, severe neurologic symptom, or haemoptysis is not a routine flare.