Thoracic manifestation of Behçet's disease

Behçet's disease is a chronic, multisystemic, and recurrent vasculitis that can affect several organs in the body, but it rarely involves the thorax. The most common pleuropulmonary manifestations are: pulmonary artery aneurysm, arterial thrombosis, aneurysm of the aortic arch and subclavian arteries, superior vena cava obstruction, innominate and subclavian vein occlusion, pulmonary infarction, recurrent pneumonia, organizing pneumonia, and pleuritis. The multiplicity of pulmonary embolisms can lead to pulmonary arterial hypertension. Chest CT with angiographic sequence is currently the preferred examination for exploring thoracic involvement in Behçet's disease. Several CT abnormalities related to parenchymal lung involvement may be observed. The most commonly encountered features are alveolar opacities, round, triangular, or poorly defined opacities, a decrease in lung volume, triangular or linear opacities, nodular or reticular opacities, collapse, labile opacities, or ground-glass opacities. Behçet's disease progresses in flare-ups of varying severity. Mortality is primarily related to vascular involvement. Pulmonary artery aneurysm is the most detrimental factor for the prognosis of the disease due to the catastrophic hemoptysis it can cause. The treatment of thoracic manifestations of Behçet's disease is not well standardized, but corticosteroids and/or immunosuppressants, tailored to the severity of the disease, remain the cornerstone of treatment. We report a case of a patient with bilateral pulmonary embolism revealing Behçet's disease.