Introduction: Dedicated Mondays and an Acquaintance-Based View of Behçet’s Syndrome

Abstract

My acquaintance with Behçet’s syndrome started almost 35 years ago when, after training in internal medicine and rheumatology, I came back to Istanbul from the United States, with an acquired taste to collect data along with a learned joy in teasing, discussing, and presenting what I have collected. Since 1977, a group of colleagues at the Cerrahpaşa Medical School of University of Istanbul – where Professor Hulusi Behçet had initially described the syndrome – have been dedicatedly trying to manage the care of, now up to some 8,000, patients with Behçet’s syndrome. This is our multidisciplinary (rheumatologists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists regularly and neurologists, vascular surgeons, and pathologists as needed) and dedicated Monday clinic where we tend to see about 60–80 patients every week. We feel privileged to listen to their problems, advise and prescribe the necessary, and collect data. Our privilege turns into pride when we remember that more than a half of the, about two dozen, controlled clinical drug trials in Behçet’s syndrome have been conducted in this unit (see Chap.19). I am indebted to all of my dedicated Monday colleagues, as well as other world experts who have contributed to the fine book at hand. Their views in their respective chapters are, by necessity, evidence-based. I like to think, on the other hand, having been invited to write an introductory chapter by a co-editor, who is also my son, entitles me, even if briefly to side step evidence and enjoy acquaintance.