Cardiac involvement in Behcets' disease: Our experience and review of the literature [Il coinvolgimento cardiaco nella malattia di behcet: Casistica personale e revisione delia letteratura]

BACKGROUNDS. Various cardiac abnormalities have been described in patients with Behçet's disease. The number of reports remains small, but increasing awareness have widened the spectrum of manifestations. We report our evaluation of cardiac involvement in 15 patients affected by Behçet's disease, diagnosed according to the criteria of the International Study Group for Behçet's Disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS. All the patients have been examined by a clinical, biochemical and instrumental point of view. Six patients resulted to be affected by heart diseases, in particular by mitral valve prolapse; moreover one of them presented an unexpected dilatative cardiomyopathy. CONCLUSIONS. The authors affirme that the pathological heart features are not so uncommon as previously reported in literature, emphatizing the necessity of a constant evaluation for the cardiovascular system also in the asymptomatic patients.