Behcet’s syndrome
Behçet’s Disease, or Behçet’s Syndrome, is a rare, multi-system inflammatory condition characterised by recurrent oral ulceration, genital ulceration, and eye and skin involvement, but it can affect other parts of the body, including the joints, brain, heart, and gut.
There is no diagnostic test for Behçet’s Disease, and diagnosis is often difficult because the way it presents can vary and overlap with other conditions. Behçet’s Disease is even rarer in children and young people, making diagnosis even harder in this group.
BPSU Behçet’s study
The purpose of this study is to establish the current UK and ROI incidence and prevalence of Behçet’s syndrome and to describe the burden of disease in children under 16 years of age in the UK. This study has completed follow-up (CI: C. Pain).
It was a prospective epidemiological study performed via the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit and British Society of Paediatric Dermatologists.
Patients were followed up for one year to track disease progression and treatment.
Over a two‑year period, 56 children met standardised international criteria for paediatric Behçet’s syndrome.
Most children were White Caucasian (86%), but the study suggests that there are no major differences in manifestations across genders or ethnic groups—except genital ulcers were a bit more common in girls.
Complexity of care
Diagnosis is often delayed by about five years from symptom onset.
Care is complex, and most paediatric patients require coordinated input from multiple specialists. It usually starts in early childhood but isn’t diagnosed until late childhood or early adolescence.
The most common issues are mouth or skin ulcers, but other organs can be affected.
Children with this disease benefit from multidisciplinary care teams to manage it effectively.
Charity Booklet
We developed a booklet for schools with patient, families and the charity.
A New Doctor of Dental Science
In 2024, Dr. Eman AlQahtani, undertook her DDSc viva in Paediatric Dentistry. Her research explored the impact of Behçet’s Syndrome on children's quality of life.
SPOUCH study – “Do Salivary Proteins Predict Causes of Oral Ulceration in Children?”
SPOUCH is a research project investigating whether it may be possible to use saliva to diagnose Behçet’s Disease in children and young people (CYP).
Mouth ulceration is the most common (and often the first) sign of Behçet’s Disease. Because of this, this project wants to see whether there are any diagnostic clues in the saliva of CYP with Behçet’s Disease, which could then lead to the development of saliva as a diagnostic tool. This project will collect and analyse saliva samples from CYP with Behçet’s Disease and compare it to the saliva of CYP with other conditions that can cause mouth ulcers (Crohn’s Disease and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus), as well as healthy CYP.
The project is funded by the Alder Hey Children’s Charity and the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences. It is being led by Dr Teslimat Ajeigbe, a dentist and Academic Clinical Fellow at the University of Liverpool.