CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Vol 22, No 6, November/December 2011
e4
AFRICA
Case Report
Right common iliac artery stenosis and stent insertion in
Behçet’s disease
Z ULUSAN, AS KARADAG, A HARMAN, F BOYVAT, S BILGIC
Abstract
Behçet’s disease is a multisystem inflammatory disorder
that is classified among the vasculitides and can affect all
types and sizes of blood vessels. Vascular manifestations of
Behçet’s disease are venous and arterial occlusion, and arte-
rial aneurysms. As vasculitis of the vasa vasorum is the main
pathological hallmark of Behçet’s disease, it is generally seen
as superficial thrombo-phlebitis or occlusion of the major
veins; however arterial obstruction and aneurysms may
also be seen to a lesser extent. Iliac artery stenosis is highly
uncommon.
Here, a case of common iliac stenosis in a 48-year-old
patient with Behçet’s disease is reported. As the risk of
aneurysm during an operation was high in this patient, he
was treated with vascular stent implantation. Due to stent
occlusion two months after the operation, percutaneous
transluminal angioplasty was performed with an 8-mm
balloon. During the three-year follow up, no obstruction was
observed.
Keywords:
artery stenosis, stent, Behçet’s disease
Submitted 18/1/10, accepted 31/8/10
Cardiovasc J Afr
2011;
22 (6)
: online publication
DOI: 10.5830/CVJA-2010-077
Behçet’s disease (BD) is a recurrent, inflammatory disorder
involving multisystems of the body. It was originally described
as a triad including oral aphthous ulcers, genital ulcers and
uveitis.
1
After the triad was described, systemic involvement of
the central nervous system, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, vascular
and musculoskeletal systems were also defined related to BD.
2
The disease is called vasculo-BD when the vascular system is
involved. There is a 2–7% arterial involvement in 20- to 40-year-
old male BD cases. Arterial involvement is more prevalent in
this group of patients when the eyes are also involved. Pseudo-
aneurysm is the most frequent form of arterial involvement and
occlusion is less common.
3
It is almost impossible to estimate
the incidence of iliac artery stenosis since it is very uncommon
and there were no data for its incidence in the literature.
4
Here,
a case of common iliac artery stenosis in a 48-year-old patient
with Behçet’s disease is reported, together with its management.
Case report
A 48-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with an acute,
severe, cramp-like pain reflecting on his right thigh and leg. The
patient had been suffering from recurrent oral ulcers and attacks
of genital ulcers and uveitis since the age of 22 years. He later
developed erythema nodosum. A skin pathology test was positive
at 48 hours. He had previously been diagnosed with BD 24 years
earlier, and he was on colchicine treatment. There were no other
features in his history, and he was a non-smoker.
The patient’s pain started during a 1 000-m walk, and it
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ankara Kecioren
Research and Training Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
Z ULUSAN, MD,
Department of Dermatology, Ankara Kecioren Research and
Training Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
AYSE SERAP KARADAG, MD
Department of Radiology, Baskent University Hospital,
Ankara, Turkey
ALI HARMAN, MD
FATIH BOYVAT, MD
Department of Radiology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
SADIK BILGIC, MD
Fig. 1. Right common iliac artery stenosis.
