Comparing the effect of phenytoin syrup and triamcinolone acetonide ointment on aphthous ulcers in patients with Behcet's syndrome

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis [RAS] appears to be the most common type of oral ulcers. The lesion is usually self limited but its painful presentation results in some difficulties. Therefore, an efficient therapeutic strategy is required and currently existing therapies seem to be inadequate because of its unclear etiology. Here the therapeutic effect of triamcinolone acetonide ointment as a relatively expensive medication has been compared with phenytoin syrup on aphthous ulcers in patients with Behcet's syndrome. Thirty out of 60 our patients with Behcet's syndrome were randomly treated by phenytoin syrup and the remaining were advised to use 0.1% triamcinolone acetonide ointment. After a week, they were visited again to determine the status of aphthous ulcers. Positive response in the triamcinolone acetonide group and phenytoin group was 86.7% and 53.3%, respectively. The effectiveness of triamcinolone acetonide ointment was more than phenytoin on aphthous ulcers in patients with Behcet's syndrome

Psychometric evaluation of patients with behget's disease

Behget's disease is a vasculitis with multi-organ involvement. Our knowledge of the psychological aspects of Behget's disease is very limited. 40 women and 24 men who fulfilled the International Study Group [ISG] criteria of Beliefs disease were selected from Beliefs Disease Clinic of Nemazee Hos-pitaK Shiraz, South of Iran. Controls consisted of 65 healthy volunteers. Both patients and controls completed SCL-90R questionnaire. Scores of somatization, obsessive-compulsive behavior, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideations and psychoticism were compared between cases and controls. Patients with Behcet's disease had significantly [P=0.04] higher global severity index of SCL-90R in comparison to controls. The patient group also had significantly higher scores for aggression [P=0.03], anxiety [P=0.04] and somatization [p=0.00] than controls. It is concluded that SCL-90R is a useful tool for evaluation of the psychiatric status of patients with Beliefs disease

Acute lupus peritonitis associated with massive ascites

Systemic lupus erythematosus [SLE] is an autoimmune disease with multiple organ involvements and abdominal pain as the most common gastrointestinal symptom. Herein, we describe a case of SLE presented with abdominal pain and massive ascites that had a good response to the high dose of prednisolone