Urticarial vasculitis revealing a lupus like syndrome

We report the case of a 38 years old woman with urticarial cutaneous lesions associated with multiple systemic involvemernt including arthralgias, myalgias, muscular weakness, persistant hypocomplementemia is noted. A biopsy of the urticaria demonstrated a leucocytoclasic vasculitis, the immunofluorescence study of the skin biopsy showed IgM, C3 and C1q deposits in the dermo epidermal junction and along the capillary wall. Antinuclear antibodies, anti DNA are present. The syndrome recognized in this patient and those few observations reported previously constitue a lupus like syndrome

Behcet's Disease

Behcet's disease is a predominantly venous vasculitis. It was first described as a clinical triad associating oral aphthae, genital aphthae and anterior uveitis. It concerns mainly young subjects of male gender originating from the Far-East and the Mediterranean basin. Its pathogenesis is not well known. It comprises neutrophil hyperreactivity owing to genetic predisposition, abnormalities in gd T cell function and microbial agents that could act as triggering factors. The most frequent clinical manifestations are cutaneo-mucous, ocular, vascular, neurological and articular. There is no specific biological abnormality and diagnosis is actually still purely based on clinical evidence. Treatment is not codified and only suspensive. It is based on colchicine, anti-inflammatory drugs and different immuno-supressives. In this work, we present a review on this subject according to some recent bibliographic data