Clinical features of leukoaraiosis involving the gastrointestinal tract

  Behcet disease (BD) is an autoimmune disease of unknown etiology and pathogenesis, with vasculitis as the underlying pathology and involving multiple systems throughout the body.  The incidence is relatively high in East Asia, such as Korea and Japan, and is usually characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms such as peptic ulcers and abdominal pain, which can be called intestinal leukodystrophy (IBD).  Leukoaraiosis can involve the entire GI tract from the mouth to the anus, and its clinical manifestations vary depending on the site of involvement, including acid reflux, belching, and retrosternal pain when the esophagus is involved, right lower abdominal cramps when the ileocecal region is involved, and bloating, diarrhea, and bloody stools.  Endoscopy of the digestive system can help in the early detection of this disease. The ulcers can be single or multiple, varying in depth and recurrent, and it is common for the ulcerated lesions to invade the esophagus, small intestine, ileocecal region, colon and other parts of the body, with the ileocecal region being the most common, and an isolated deep oval ulcer in the ileocecal region is diagnostic.  Because of the lack of specificity of its clinical manifestations and its frequent occurrence in the ileocecal region, clinical diagnosis and treatment should pay attention to the differentiation from intestinal tuberculosis and Crohn’s disease. The differentiation is particularly important in the case of intestinal tuberculosis, because the treatment of intestinal leukoplakia requires the addition of glucocorticoids and/or immunosuppressive agents, which can lead to the exacerbation of the former disease.  This is despite effective treatment with drugs such as 5-aminosalicylic acid, glucocorticoids, immunosuppressants or infliximab. The recurrence rate of intestinal leukoplakia remains common, especially in young male patients. Recurrent ulcers can be combined with life-threatening complications such as gastrointestinal hemorrhage and perforation of the gastrointestinal tract, requiring combined surgical intervention when necessary.