Serum prolactin levels and Behçet disease.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate serum prolactin levels in Behçet disease (BD) and correlate with phenotypic expression of the disease.


METHODS
This was a prospective, nonrandomized comparative trial. Twenty-two patients fulfilling BD Research Committee criteria and 21 healthy control subjects were included. Patients were classified in complete-type or incomplete-type BD subgroups according to clinical characteristics such as recurrent oral ulcers, genital ulcers, skin lesions, and ocular disease. Age, sex, HLA phenotyping, and therapy were recorded for comparative analysis between groups. Serum prolactin levels were determined by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay on a Modular Analytics E170 analyzer.


RESULTS
Prolactinemia was significantly higher (mean=19.34 ng/mL) in BD patients vs controls (mean=9.83 ng/mL) (p=0.009). This value was also statistically higher in complete-type BD sub-group vs controls (p=0.02). Younger patients (<30 y) required corticosteroids plus immunosuppressives more often (75%), suggesting an association between age and disease severity, al-though not statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest the role of prolactin in BD pathogenesis and its association with disease expression, especially in complete-type BD.
Proença
H
H
Department of Ophthalmology, Visual Sciences Research Centre, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. helenprocenca@hotmail.com
Ferreira
C
C
Miranda
M
M
Castanheira-Dinis
A
A
Monteiro-Grillo
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000145:classification; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D011388:Prolactin / Q000097:blood*; D011446:Prospective Studies
D011388:Prolactin