Effects of Smoking and HLA-B51 on Clinical Manifestations in Behçet’s Disease: Retrospective Analysis of 209 Patients in a Turkish Population

Serpil TUNA1, Sevil ALAN2, Elif Betül TÜRKOĞLU3

1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Faculty of Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey
2Department of Dermatology, Medical Faculty of Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey
3Department of Oftalmology, Medical Faculty of Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

Keywords: Behçet’s disease, human leukocyte antigen-B51, smoking

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the separate and cumulative effects of smoking and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B51 on the severity and clinical manifestations of Behçet’s disease (BD).
Patients and methods: A total of 209 patients (119 males, 90 females; mean age 42.97±10.44 years; range 23 to 75 years) with BD were included in this retrospective study. The severity and clinical manifestations of BD, smoking habits, and presence of HLA-B51 of patients were obtained from medical records. The severity of BD was evaluated with Behçet’s Syndrome Activity Scale (BSAS). Relationship between smoking habits and presence of HLA-B51 with disease severity and clinical manifestations was investigated.
Results: Presence of HLA-B51 was effective on BSAS, erythema nodosum (EN), articular, ocular and neurological involvements (p=0.001, p=0.011, p=0.013, p=0.001, p=0.038, respectively). Smoking was also effective on BSAS, EN, articular, ocular and neurological involvements (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.013, p=0.042, p=0.027, respectively). There was a strong association between positive HLA-B51 with smoking (p=0.004). Smoking and HLA- B51 were effective on articular involvement, smoking was effective on EN, and HLA-B51 and smoking were effective on ocular and neurological involvements (p=0.039, p=0.040, p=0.001, p=0.028, p=0.037, respectively).
Conclusion: Our findings indicate that smoking and HLA-B51 influence severity and systemic involvements of BD with a positive relationship in between. We recommend that smoking and HLA-B51 should be considered simultaneously in BD since this relationship may lead to incorrect inferences.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Financial Disclosure

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.