Relevance of vein wall thickness in Behcet's disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: To perform a meta-analysis on articles evaluating the common femoral vein wall thickness (VWT) in Behcet's disease and its possible clinical, laboratory and treatment correlates (BD). Methods: Systematic search of EMBASE and PubMed databases from inception to October 2023; we employed random effect meta-analyses for continuous outcomes. Results: The meta-analysis included 9 case-control and 1 cohort study: the VWT was greater in BD (n = 650) than in controls (n = 396) (p < 0.0001) with wide heterogeneity (I² = 94.4%); a sensitivity analysis that included mean age of BD participants, gender, disease duration and activity, C-reactive protein, smoking status, immune-suppressive and anti-inflammatory medication, revealed that the heterogeneity variance was partly explained by age (p < 0.0001), male gender (p = 0.03), disease duration (p < 0.0001) and smoking (p = 0.06). The VWT was greater in BD with thrombotic/vascular (n = 189) than in non-thrombotic/vascular BD (n = 140) (p = 0.006) with no heterogeneity. Conclusion: VWT is greater in BD than controls: age, male gender, disease duration and smoking relate to VWT that was greater in BD patients with a history of thrombotic/vascular disease. Prospective studies are required to assess whether VWT may be considered a vascular marker of disease activity.