Magnetic Resonance Enterography Findings of Intestinal Behçet Disease in a Child

Abstract EN

Behçet’s disease (BD) is a multisystem disorder of unknown aetiology, characterized by recurrent oral ulcers, genital ulcers, uveitis, skin lesions, and pathergy.

Gastrointestinal disease outside the oral cavity is well recognized and usually takes the form of small intestinal ulcers, with the most significant lesions frequently occurring in the ileocaecal region.

Symptoms usually include nausea, vomiting, colicky abdominal pain, and change in bowel habit and it is not unusual that patients may present late, with life-threatening complications requiring surgery.

Diagnosis has been hindered for many years by limitations in imaging the small bowel and it is usually achieved by means of endoscopy and CT of the abdomen.

Magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) is a relatively new technique, which has a high diagnostic rate in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD).

Although many similarities between CD and intestinal BD have already been described in literature, the role of MRE in the evaluation of intestinal BD has never been defined up to now.

We report a case of a 12-year-old female patient with diagnosis of BD who presented at our institution for recurrent colicky abdominal pain and diarrhoea.

The patient underwent MRE that demonstrated the gastrointestinal involvement.