Behcet's Disease A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

by Kenneth Kee

Overview

This book describes Behcet’s Disease, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases
Behcet's disease (also known as Behcet's syndrome) is an infrequent disorder which causes frequent ulcers in the mouth and genital area and can affect different parts of the body.
The syndrome most often affects the eyes (ileitis), mouth (pathos ulcers) and skin (genital sores).
Behcet's disease is a disease that involves vasculities (inflammation of the blood vessels).
It causes disorders in many parts of the body.
Causes
The actual cause of this disorder is still not entirely understood, even though there is plenty of research being done in this area.
Most symptoms of Behcet’s disease are due to swelling of the blood vessels.
The patient may have a gene that causes a disorder in the immune system, making it more likely the person will get the disease.
Some item in the environment, such as bacteria or viruses, may then cause the immune system to attack its blood vessels.
Symptoms:
The symptoms of Behcet’s disease differ for each person.
Some people have only mild symptoms, such as sores in the mouth.
Others have more serious disorders, such as vision loss.
If the person is having symptoms, then he or she is going through a “flare.”
The five most frequent symptoms of Behcet’s disease are:
1.Mouth sores.
2.Genital sores.
3.Other skin sores.
4.Swelling of parts of the eye.
5.Arthritis (pain, swelling, and stiffness in the joints).
Less frequent symptoms are:
1.Swelling in the brain and spinal cord.
2.Blood clots.
3.Swelling in the digestive system (the parts of the body that digest food).
4.Blindness.
Diagnosis:
Behcet’s disease is hard to diagnose because:
1.The symptoms do not normally appear all at once.
2.There are other illnesses that have the same symptoms.
3.There is no single test to diagnose Behcet’s disease.
Symptoms used to find out if the person has the disease are:
1.Mouth sores at least three times in 12 months.
2.Two of the following:
a.Genital sores that go away and come back.
b.Swelling of parts of the eye (with vision loss).
c.Skin sores.
d.Small red bumps that occur after the doctor pricks the skin with a needle.
The pathergy test, which measures the sensitivity of the skin, may be done by the doctor.
If a typical diagnostic red spot appears, the result is positive.
If the result is positive this does not mean that the patient definitely does have Behcet's disease.
Treatment
There is no cure for Behcet’s disease.
The treatment will help decrease pain and prevent serious disorders.
Medicines:
1.Corticosteroids—medicines to reduce pain and swelling.
2.Other drugs to help control the immune system, decrease swelling, and prevent symptoms.
Activity
1.Rest when having symptoms.
2.Moderate exercise, such as swimming or walking
If the symptoms are mild then the patient may only need treatment such as topical steroid to mouth ulcers when he or she has a flare-up.
Steroid eye drops are given if the patient has inflammation of the middle layer of the eye (uveitis).
Simple painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen may improve any painful joints.
If the patient is experiencing more severe symptoms then medicine is normally given to try to suppress the disease.
This is normally in the form of steroid tablets and also another medicine to suppress the immune system
For oral and genital ulcers, the topical steroids or sucralfate solution is the first-line treatment for mild isolated ulcers.
For serious mucocutaneous sores, systemic corticosteroids, azathioprine, dapsone, interferon-alfa, colchicine, and thalidomide have improved
Doctors advise using infliximab and adalimumab as first-line immunomodulatory medicines for eye manifestations

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Behcet’s Disease
Chapter 2 Causes
Chapter 3 Symptoms
Chapter 4 Diagnosis
Chapter 5 Treatment
Chapter 6 Prognosis
Chapter 7 Stomatitis
Chapter 8 Aphthous Mouth Ulcers
Epilogue

Product Details

BN ID:	2940155138105
Publisher:	Kenneth Kee
Publication date:	02/15/2018
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	118 KB

About the Author

Medical doctor since 1972. Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009. Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993. Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 65. However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. He first started writing free blogs on medical conditions seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com. His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiolographical account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com. This autobiolographical account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Conditions” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com. From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 550 amazon kindle books and some into Smashwords.com eBooks. He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books. He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures. Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple. For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients. The later books go into more details of medical conditions. The first chapter of all my ebooks is always taken from my blog A Simple Guide to Medical Conditions which was started in 2007 as a simple educational help to my patients on my first blog http://kennethkee.blogspot.com. The medical condition was described simply and direct to the point. Because the simple guide as taken from the blog was described as too simple, I have increased the other chapters to include more detailed description of the illness, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. As a result there are the complaints by some readers of constant repetitions of the same contents but in detail and fairly up to date. He has published 550 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter. The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health conditions and not meant as textbooks. He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke. His clinic is now relocated to the Bouna Vista Community Centre. The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall. He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) starting with the Apple computer and going to PC. All the PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core. The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive. He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance. His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner. The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned. This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale. Dr Kee is the author of: "A Family Doctor's Tale" "Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine" "Case Notes From A Family Doctor"