Reduced erythrocyte deformability in active and untreated Behçet's disease patients.
OBJECTIVE
Although the etiology of Behcet's disease is not clarified yet, the vascular endothelial damage and thrombosis are prominent features of the disease. The underlying mechanisms of increased risk of thrombosis in Behcet's disease are not completely understood. It is stated that the changes in blood rheology such as erythrocyte deformability take part in the thrombosis. There are limited numbers of studies with conflicting results about the erythrocyte deformability in Behcet's disease. The previous studies were not limited to the untreated patients with active disease.


METHODS
Blood samples were filtered immediately by "Imugard- leukocyte removal filter". After plasma and erythrocytes were separated by centrifugation, 10% erythrocyte suspensions were prepared with isotonic Tris NaCl buffer solution. These erythrocyte suspensions were filtered under gravitational force by "Nucleopore" to determine the filtration time. The filtration times of the erythrocyte and buffer solutions were referred as t1 and t2 respectively. Finally, deformability indices were obtained by dividing the t1 by t2. A decrease in the deformability of the erythrocytes would result in an increase in the filtration time of the erythrocyte suspension and deformability indices.


RESULTS
The median deformability indices were 3.090 and 2.170 for patients and control subjects respectively and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.000).


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that the decrease in erythrocyte deformability in Behcet's disease may be related to oxidative damage of erythrocytes and subsequently takes part in the development of thrombosis in Behcet's disease.
Tatlican
Semih
S
Department of Dermatology, Ministry of Health Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Research and Education Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. semtatlican@yahoo.com
Duran
Fatma Simsek
FS
Eren
Cemile
C
Eskioglu
Fatma
F
Dikmenoglu
Neslihan
N
Oktay
Bilgen
B
Durmazlar
Selda Pelin Kartal
SP
Canpolat
Filiz
F
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D001809:Blood Viscosity; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004907:Erythrocyte Deformability; D005260:Female; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
D005340:Fibrinogen; D002097:C-Reactive Protein