Causes of Behcet's Disease

Contents

Race Patterns for Behcet's Disease Causes:

Racial predominance for Behcet's Disease: Middle East and Asia...more »

Behcet's Disease Causes: Male-Female Gender Ratio

Gender of Patients for Behcet's Disease: Men more than women....more »

Gender Profile of Behcet's Disease: In Middle Eastern and Asian countries, the disease affects more men than women. In the United... (Source: excerpt from Questions and Answers About Behcets Disease: NIAMS) ...more »

Behcet's Disease: Related Medical Conditions

To research the causes of Behcet's Disease, consider researching the causes of these these diseases that may be similar, or associated with Behcet's Disease:

Adamantiades-Behcet disease
Triple Symptom Complex
Swelling
Redness
Heat
Pain

Behcet's Disease: Causes and Types

Causes of Broader Categories of Behcet's Disease: Review the causal information about the various more general categories of medical conditions:

What causes Behcet's Disease?

Article excerpts about the causes of Behcet's Disease:
The exact cause of Behçet’s disease is unknown. Most of the symptoms are caused by inflammation of the blood vessels, particularly veins. Inflammation is the body’s characteristic reaction to injury or disease and is marked by four signs: swelling, redness, heat, and pain. Doctors think that an autoimmune reaction may cause blood vessels to become inflamed, but they do not know what triggers this reaction. In an autoimmune reaction, the immune system mistakenly attacks and harms the body’s own tissues. Under normal conditions, the immune system protects the body from diseases and infections by killing harmful “foreign” substances, such as germs, that enter the body.

Behçet’s disease is not contagious and does not spread from one person to another. Researchers think that two factors are probably important in its development. First, it is believed that abnormalities of the immune system make some people susceptible to the disease. Researchers think that this problem may be inherited; that is, it may be due to one or more specific genes. Second, something in the environment, possibly a bacterium or virus, might trigger or activate the disease in susceptible people. Researchers have found that people who have frequent strep infections (caused by Streptococcus bacteria) are more likely to develop Behçet’s disease. (Source: excerpt from Questions and Answers About Behcets Disease: NIAMS)