title: Homocysteine: an activity marker in Behçet's disease?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Behçet's disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem inflammatory disorder commonly complicated by vascular thrombosis.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study, we investigated whether hyperhomocysteinaemia, being a well known risk factor for atherothrombogenesis, is also a contributive risk factor for the pathogenesis and the activation of Behçet's disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-four patients fulfilling the criteria of the International Study Group for Behçet's disease (48 males, 16 females, 33+/-8 years) were enrolled. They were separated into two groups with respect to activation features of Behçet's disease. Additionally, we collected the blood samples from 13 patients with BD in both active stage and in inactive stage. Twenty-six healthy individuals were included as a negative control group. Serum total homocysteine (Hcy) levels were determined by chemiluminescence immunoassay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean serum homocysteine concentrations in total BD patients were significantly higher than in the healthy controls (11.7+/-4.6 versus 8.7+/-2.8micromol/L, p<0.01). Mean serum homocysteine concentrations in the active patients were significantly higher than in the inactive patients and the healthy controls (13.3+/-3.6; 10.8+/-5.0; 8.7+/-2.8micromol/L, respectively) (p<0.05 and p<0.001, respectively). There was no significant difference between the patients with inactive disease and the healthy controls. When the active and the inactive stage of 13 patients with BD were compared, we found that mean serum total homocysteine levels were higher in the active stage than in the inactive stage (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hyperhomocysteinaemia may be responsible for the endothelial damage in BD and assumed to be a risk factor and a marker for activation of BD.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health, Okmeydani Educational and Research Hospital, Department of Biochemistry, Okmeydani-Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Tuncay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sarican
authors.forename: Hatice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ayabakan
authors.forename: Sembol
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Turkmen
authors.forename: Vesile
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kalaslioglu
authors.forename: Fehmi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baran
authors.forename: Necati
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yenice
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D020138:Hyperhomocysteinemia / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006710:Homocysteine