FRI0579 Dynamic Doppler Evaluation of the Hand and Digital Arteries in Patients with Behçet's Disease

BackgroundThe pathological process in Behçet's disease (BD) is autoimmune vasculitis which may involve all types and sizes of vessels. Previous studies evaluated the changes in vascular flow of ocular/carotid arteries, superior/inferior mesenteric artery with Doppler ultrasonography (US) (1,2). On the other hand, although very few, involvement of the distal extremity arteries has been mentioned in BD (3).ObjectivesTo evaluate the blood flow parameters of hand arteries in patients with BD by using Doppler US and to determine whether the blood flow parameters correlated with any of the diseases characteristics.MethodsTwenty-seven (13 F, 14 M) consecutive BD patients and 27 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the subjects were recorded. Doppler measurements for radial and ulnar arteries (wrist level), and ulnar proper palmar artery (3rd finger distal interphalangeal joint level) were performed bilaterally (Fig. 1).ResultsMean age of the patients and controls were 35.6±9.2 years (range, 19-59). Patient and control groups were similar as regards body mass index (25.0±3.2 kg/m2 vs 24.5±2.7 kg/m2) and number of smokers (9 vs 11) (both p values >0.05). The diameter and flow volume of radial, ulnar, digital arteries were decreased and pulsatility index were increased in BD group (all p values