Infliximab in the treatment of Budd-Chiari syndrome in Behçet’s disease

Abstract

Behçet’s disease is a chronic autoinflammatory disorder that usually presents with recurrent oral and genital ulcers, uveitis, skin lesions and arthritis. Any organ, however, can be involved and in a subgroup of patients the large vascular lesions are the predominant feature (vasculo-Behçet disease). We report a case of a 27-yearold man with Behçet’s disease who developed Budd-Chiari syndrome while on immunosuppressive therapy. Infliximab resulted in a rapid and total clinical remission. Literature data have shown that antitumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNF-α) agents including infliximab can suppress disease activity but there is no long-term experience on tapering and/or discontinuation of treatment under clinical remission. Our case supports the use of infliximab in vasculo-Behçet patients.

Keywords

• Behçet’s disease
• venous thrombosis
• Budd-Chiari
• infliximab.