Disorders mimicking Behçet disease

What other disorders can mimic Behçet disease?

Gülen Hatemi, MD: Oral ulcers are very common in several other inflammatory conditions, such as inflammatory bowel disease or lupus. In Behçet syndrome all ulcers tend to be more painful, more frequent, and multiple.

Genital ulcers are usually mimicked by sexually transmitted infections, such as herpes. They can be differentiated by localization: Behçet syndrome genital ulcers are usually in the scrotum in men and labia majora in women, and they usually do not involve the penis shaft, vagina, or cervix. So this also helps the differential diagnosis.

As for other conditions, Crohn disease would be very much similar to the gastrointestinal involvement of Behçet syndrome. It is very hard to differentiate these two conditions, as Crohn disease also causes uveitis, arthritis, erythema nodosum, and oral ulcers, which are frequent in Behçet syndrome.

For the nervous system involvement, multiple sclerosis is important in the differential diagnosis.