LEFT SUBCLAVIAN ARTERY ANEURYSM IN BEHCET'S DISEASE PRESENTING AS THROMBOEMBOLI AND BRACHIAL PLEXOPATHY

Abstract

Behcet's disease is an uncommon multisystemic disorder that appears most often in the third or fourth decade of life. It is characterized by recurrent orogenital ulcers and ocular and cutaneous inflammatory lesions. Cardiovascular involvement, which may be arterial or venous, is rare but carries a particularly poor prognosis. Arterial involvement is less frequent, constituting 12% of cardiovascular complications. The arterial findings in this disease may be occlusions and aneurysms or pseudoaneurysms of the aorta and pulmonary, brachial, carotid, subclavian and visceral arteries. In this report, we present a 41-year-old man having suffered from Behyet's disease for more than 12 years, complicated by a big bi-saccular aneurysm of the 1^st and 2^nd portions of the left subclavian artery. The presenting symptoms and signs were thromboembolic arterial occlusion and brachial plexus compression.