title: Serum galectin-3 levels in patients with Behçet's disease: association with disease activity over a long-term follow-up.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a need for a laboratory marker that correlates with the clinical activity of Behçet's disease (BD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to investigate whether serum galectin-3 (Gal-3) levels were affected during the course of the disease with regard to disease activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 131 subjects were involved in the study as follows: Group 1: BD active (n = 39); Group 2: BD inactive (n = 31); Group 3: Disease controls with leucocytoclastic vasculitis confirmed with a skin biopsy (n = 22); and Group 4: Healthy control subjects (n = 39). The BD patients were followed regularly and samples were taken in their active and inactive periods of the disease over a 2-year period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum Gal-3 levels were significantly higher in active BD patients (mean 2.38) than inactive BD patients (mean 0.63; P < 0.0001) and the healthy control subjects (mean 0.75; P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference between the leucocytoclastic vasculitis and active BD patients (P = 0.093). Serum Gal-3 levels were positively correlated with clinical activity scores of active BD patients (r = 0.66, P < 0.0001). In addition, the Gal-3 levels were significantly higher in the active disease period when compared with the inactive period during the follow-up. There were no significant differences between the two inactive periods of the disease among the same patients. Further analyses revealed that patients with vascular involvement had significantly higher Gal-3 levels than the other active BD patients (mean 7.57; P = 0.007).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The limitation of the study is the small number of patients with vascular involvement in the active BD patient group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gal-3 levels are correlated with the activity of Behçet's disease especially with the vascular involvement.
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Department, Medical Faculty, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey. mgulerozden@hotmail.com
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Özden
authors.forename: Y T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Caycı
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tekin
authors.forename: A Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Çoban
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aydın
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sentürk
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bek
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cantürk
authors.forename: A Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Turanlı
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology; D018366:Vasculitis, Leukocytoclastic, Cutaneous / Q000097:blood; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D037502:Galectin 3