Behçet’s disease, myelodysplastic syndrome, trisomy 8, gastroenterological involvement – An association

L. Eder¹, M. Rozenbaum^2,3, N. Boulman², E. Aayubkhanov², E. Wolfovitz⁴, D. Zisman¹, I. Rosner²

¹Internal Medicine A, Carmel Medical Center, Haifa; ²Department of Rheumatology, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa; ³Zvulon Clinic, Clalit Health Fund, Kiryat Motzkin; 4Internal Medicine C, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.

ABSTRACT
Only a limited number of cases of Behçet’s disease and hematological malignancies have been reported in the literature. We report the case of a 45 year old female patient with Behçet’s disease who developed myelodysplastic syndrome, refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation subtype, with complex chromosomal abnormalities, including excess of chromosome 8, following several years of treatment with chlorambucil for Behçet’s disease. As has been described in most such cases, gastrointestinal involvement was most prominent. This case is described and the occurrence of myelodysplastic syndrome in Behçet’s disease reviewed.

Key words
Behçet’s disease, myelodysplastic syndrome, trisomy 8, gastrointestinal Behçet’s.

Please address correspondence to: Lihi Eder, MD, Kibbutz Usha 30031, Israel.
E-mail: ben@usha.org.il

Clin Exp Rheumatol 2005; 23 (suppl. 38): S91-S95.
© CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY 2005.