Budd-Chiari syndrome in a 25-year-old woman with Behçet's disease: a case report and review of the literature

Abstract Introduction The risk that patients with Behçet's disease will develop thrombotic complications has been previously described. Although it is distributed worldwide, Behçet's disease is rare in the Americas and Europe. Even though the pathogenic mechanisms of vascular complications of Budd-Chiari syndrome in patients with Behçet's disease are unknown, severe vascular complications of Budd-Chiari syndrome associated with Behçet's disease seem to affect mainly young men. Case presentation We report a case of Budd-Chiari syndrome, a severe vascular complication that developed in a 25-year-old Afro-Brazilian woman with Behçet's disease. Conclusion Severe vascular complications of Budd-Chiari syndrome in patients with Behçet's disease are much more common in young adult male patients; we present a rare case of Budd-Chiari syndrome in a young Afro-Brazilian woman with Behçet's disease.

The authors thank Dr. Steven Miller for revising the manuscript. This manuscript is supported by grants from Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisas do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP 2006/500842) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 474531/20082) to NM Matsuda.

The authors thank Dr. Steven Miller for revising the manuscript. This manuscript is supported by grants from Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisas do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP 2006/50084-2) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 474531/2008-2) to NM Matsuda.