Behcet Syndrome

In patients with Behçet's syndrome (BS), deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is thought to result from inflammation of the vessel wall rather than hyper coagulability. Post Thrombotic Syndrome (PTS) is frequent especially with recurrent episodes of deep vein thrombosis and may result in leg ulcers that are very difficult to treat. Vascular involvement is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among BS patients. However, one of the most controversial issues regarding the management of BS is whether DVT should be treated with anticoagulants. Moreover, use of anticoagulants exposes patients to serious bleeding, especially in those who presents simultaneous arterial aneurysms. However, many physicians are still using anticoagulants. This is the first prospective, randomized study assessing benefits of corticosteroids associated with anticoagulant compared to that of corticosteroids alone in DVT in BS patients. It will validate or not the use of anticoagulants in those situations. It will allow a direct comparison of the safety profile of those two schemes of treatment.

Autoinflammatory diseases (AID) are clinical entities characterized by recurrent inflammatory attacks in absence of infection, neoplasm or deregulation of the adaptive immune system. Among them, hereditary periodic syndromes, also known as monogenic AID, represent the prototype of this disease group, caused by mutations in genes involved in the regulation of innate immunity, inflammation and cell death. Based on recent experimental acquisitions in the field of monogenic AID, several immunologic disorders have been reclassified as polygenic/multifactorial AID, sharing pathogenetic and clinical features with hereditary periodic fevers. This has paved the way to new treatment targets for patients suffering from rare diseases of unknown origin, including Behçet's disease, Still disease, Schnitzler's disease, PFAPA (periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and cervical adenitis) syndrome, chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO), non-infectious uveitis and scleritis. Gathering information on such rare conditions is made difficult by the small number of patients, along with the difficulty of obtaining an accurate diagnosis in non-specialized clinical settings. In this context, the AIDA project promotes international collaboration among clinical centres to develop a permanent registry aimed at collecting demographic, genetic, clinical and therapeutic data of patients affected by monogenic and polygenic AID, in order to expand the current knowledge of these rare conditions.