Table 2.

Overview of studies derived from the medical literature reporting treatment indications of gastrointestinal lesions in Behçet's disease.

Drugs	Dose	Authors (year)	Number of patients	Type of study	Outcomes
5-ASA/SSZ	2.4–4 g/day	Jung et al. (2012)	143/292	Retrospective cohort study	Positive effect in maintaining remission
THD	2-3 mg/kg/day	Yasui et al. (2008)	7	Case series	Dramatic improvement in clinical symptoms
	—	Lee et al. (2010)	4	Case series	3/4 patients had a clinical improvement and all discontinued steroid therapy
THD/IFX/ADA/ ETA	THD 50–100 mg/day IFX 5 mg/kg every 8 weeks ADA 160 mg at week 0 and 80 mg at week 2, followed by 40 mg every other week ETA 25 mg twice a week	Hatemi et al. (2015)	13/64	Observational study	Remission obtained with TNF-α antagonists and/or THD in about 75% of cases.
AZA or 6-MP	AZA 2–2.5 mg/kg/day 6-MP 0.5–1.5 mg/kg/day	Jung et al. (2012)	67/272	Retrospective study	Relative good effect for maintenance of remission
AZA or 6-MP vs 5-ASA	AZA 2–2.5 mg/kg/day or 6-MP 1–1.5 mg/kg/day vs 5-ASA 3-4 g/day	Lee et al. (2015)	77	Retrospective observational study	The rates of reoperation, readmission, and death were not significantly different between the 5-ASA and thiopurine groups
MTX + IFX	MTX - FX 3–5 mg/kg every 8 weeks	Iwata et al. (2011)	10	Observational study	Long-term alleviation of entero-BD and excellent tolerability with combination of IFX and MTX
INF-α	6 × 106 IU per day for 14 days	Grimbacher et al. (1997)	1	Case report	Complete remission of Behçet's retinal infiltrates and BD-related colitis
	3 × 106 IU/day 3 times/week increased to 6 × 106 IU/day 3 times/week	Monastirli et al. (2010)	1	Case report	Complete remission of all clinical manifestations
IVIg	400 mg/kg/day for 5 days per month	Cantarini et al. (2016)	1/4	Case series	Complete disease remission of gastrointestinal, manifestations
IFX	—	Ideguchi et al. (2014)	7/43	Retrospective observational study	Good response in two patients, remission in one, partial response in two, and unchanged GI lesions in two patients
	5 mg/kg/every 8 weeks	Lee et al. (2013)	28	Multicenter retrospective study	IFX efficacy for patients with moderate-to-severe intestinal BD
	5 mg/kg every 8 weeks	Kinoshita et al. (2013)	15/43	Retrospective cohort study	Acceptable efficacy of IFX in BD patients refractory to conventional treatments
	5 mg/kg every 8 weeks	Hibi et al. (2016)	11/18	Open-label study	IFX efficacy in the treatment of intestinal BD
ADA	160 mg at week 0 and 80 mg at week 2, followed by 40 mg every other week	Tanida et al. (2015)	20	Multicenter, open-label, uncontrolled study	ADA effectiveness in inducing and maintaining clinical improvement and remission in patients with intestinal BD
	160 mg at week 0 and 80 mg at week 2, followed by 40 mg every other week	Tanida et al. (2016)	8	Retrospective observational study	Long-term efficacy and safety of ADA for the treatment of intestinal BD in the clinical setting
ETA	25 mg twice a week	Ma et al. (2014)	19/35	Observational study	The relapse rate for etanercept therapy was reduced significantly when compared with conventional therapy
ANA	100 mg/day 2 mg/kg/day increased to 2.5 mg/kg/day	Cantarini et al. (2013)	3/9	Case series	Complete resolution of abdominal pain in two patients, relapse in one patient
CANA	150 mg every 8 weeks 150 mg every six weeks	Vitale et al. (2013)	2/3	Case series	Complete resolution of abdominal pain
TCZ	8 mg/kg/ every 4 weeks	Deroux et al. (2015)	3/4	Case series	Less effective for arthralgia and abdominal pain

ADA, adalimumab; ANA, anakinra; anti-TNF-α, anti-tumor necrosis factor-α; 5-ASA, 5-aminosalicylic acid; AZA, azathioprine; CANA, canakinumab; ETA, etanercept; INF-α, interferon α; IFX, infliximab; IVIg, intravenous immunoglobulins; 6-MP, 6-mercaptopurine; MTX, methotrexate; SSZ, sulfasalazine; TCZ, tocilizumab; THD, Thalidomide.