title: Assessment of arterial stiffness in patients with inactive and active Behçet's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Behçet's disease (BD) is a systemic vasculitis involving diverse sizes of arteries and veins. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between central blood pressures, pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements, and biochemical parameters in patients with inactive and active BD and control subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-six patients with BD were recruited in this study. Each subject was evaluated in active and inactive disease periods. For the control group, 54 healthy age- and sex-matched subjects were enrolled. All patients completed a standard questionnaire form and various laboratory parameters were evaluated. Vascular measurements were performed with a Mobil-O-Graph 24-h PWA Monitor, an automatic oscillometric device.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to the vascular function parameters of patients with active and inactive BD, 24-h, day, and night PWV values were higher in patients with active BD than in patients with inactive BD (p < 0.05). When we performed a linear regression analysis, 24-h PWV was positively correlated with age and duration of BD. Cardiac output (CO) values and day central diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were higher in patients with BD than in the control group (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PWV values were higher in patients with active BD than in patients with inactive BD. This may be explained by more prominent inflammatory changes in the vascular wall in the active disease period. Further studies in large populations are required to confirm our results.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Selcuk University , Konya , Turkey.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Celik
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Esmen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002302:Cardiac Output / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014655:Vascular Resistance / Q000502:physiology*; D059289:Vascular Stiffness / Q000502:physiology*