Behcet's disease and IgA nephropathy

Although Behçet's disease (BD) is a kind of systemic disease, renal involvement is rare, especially IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Renal manifestations in BD range from mild urinary abnormalities to glomerulonephritis with persistent renal failure, which includes minimal change disease, proliferative glomerulonephritis, rapidly crescentic glomerulonephritis, renal amyloidosis and IgA nephropathy. Amyloidosis seems to be the most common type of renal lesion in BD, and several cases of nephrotic syndrome secondary to amyloidosis have been documented. Co-occurrence of BD and IgA nephropathy has only been reported in only few cases. We describe two patients with the rare association of BD and IgAN. We suggested that it is important to periodically perform renal function assessment in patients with BD, through urinalysis and measurement of serum creatinine for detecting any abnormality and providing an early adequate treatment.