Mandibular bone mineral density in patients with Behçet’s disease

Abstract

Objectives

Behçet’s disease (BD) is a chronic, recurring vasculitis of unknown etiology. Patients with BD may use a lot of medications associated with the clinical symptoms. Drugs that are used in the treatment of BD may cause bone loss. The aims of the current study were to compare the bone mineral density (BMD) values between BD and healthy volunteers and describe the effect of disease duration on mandibular BMD.

Materials and methods

The study comprised 30 healthy volunteers (15 males and 15 females, mean age 35.50±6.80 years) and 45 patients with BD (24 males and 21 females, mean age 38.93±8.93 years). The BD group was subdivided according to disease duration (0–5, 6–10, and >10 years). The BMD value of the mandibular body was determined by the dual energy X-ray absorptiometry technique.

Results

The mean mandibular body BMD values were 1.294±0.21 g/cm² in the control group and 1.216±0.22 g/cm² in the BD patients, although there was no statistically significant difference. The BMD was observed to decrease with increased disease duration but not to a statistically significant degree.

Conclusion

The results of this study showed that although the BMD value decreased as the duration of the disease increased, no statistically significant difference was found between the BD patients and the healthy control group.

Keywords:

• Behçet’s disease
• mandible
• bone mineral density
• dual energy X-ray absorptiometry

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.