Homocysteine: An activity marker in Behçet's disease?

SummaryBackgroundBehçet's disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem inflammatory disorder commonly complicated by vascular thrombosis.ObjectiveIn 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.MethodsSixty-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.ResultsMean serum homocysteine concentrations in total BD patients were significantly higher than in the healthy controls (11.7 ± 4.6 versus 8.7 ± 2.8 μmol/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 ± 2.8 μmol/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).ConclusionHyperhomocysteinaemia may be responsible for the endothelial damage in BD and assumed to be a risk factor and a marker for activation of BD.