Evaluation of atherogenic laboratory markers in Behçet's disease patients with vascular involvement

Çiğdem Yücel; Ahmet Omma; Erdim Sertoğlu; Sevilay Sezer; Turan Turhan; Taner Özgürtaş

doi:10.5114/aoms.2018.79139

Evaluation of atherogenic laboratory markers in Behçet's disease patients with vascular involvement

Arch Med Sci. 2019 Oct 27;16(3):531-537. doi: 10.5114/aoms.2018.79139. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Çiğdem Yücel¹, Ahmet Omma², Erdim Sertoğlu³, Sevilay Sezer¹, Turan Turhan¹, Taner Özgürtaş³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Altındağ, Ankara, Turkey.
² Department of Rheumatology Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Altındağ, Ankara, Turkey.
³ Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Ankara Gülhane Training and Research Hospital, Etlik, Ankara, Turkey.

Abstract

Introduction: Behçet's disease is a chronic inflammatory vasculitis presenting with immunological and endothelial changes. The aim of the present study is to evaluate blood levels of diagnostic markers which can be used in Behçet's patients with vascular involvement.

Material and methods: Fifty Behçet's patients (22 with vascular involvement) and 30 healthy controls were included in the study. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), apolipoprotein B (apoB), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), triglyceride, total cholesterol, Lp-plA-2, homocysteine and ischemia modified albumin (IMA) levels were analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS program version 11.0. p < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.

Results: hsCRP, TNF-α, homocysteine, IMA, apoA1, apoB, HDL, Lp-pla2 and ESR levels in patient and control groups were significantly different (p < 0.001, p = 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.005, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p = 0.003 respectively). In Behçet's patients with vascular involvement, homocysteine, TNF-α and Lp-pla2 levels were significantly higher than in Behçet's patients without vascular involvement (p = 0.035, p = 0.010 and p < 0.001 respectively).

Conclusions: Increased levels of inflammatory and atherogenic markers in Behçet's patients are an expected outcome due to the inflammatory nature of the disease. Especially, elevated levels of homocysteine, TNF-α and Lp-pla2 make them candidate diagnostic tools to be helpful in clinical evaluation of Behçet's disease patients with vascular involvement.

Keywords: Behçet’s disease; atherosclerosis; inflammation; vascular involvement.