Endogenous thrombin potential in Behçet's disease: relationship with thrombosis and anticoagulant therapy.

Abstract To analyse the relationship between an automated thrombin generation test, the endogenous thrombin potential (ETP), and other hypercoagulability markers, with vascular involvement in patients with Behcet's disease (BD). Patients and methods. We analysed 56 BD patients (30 men; mean age, 34.4 ± 14.3 years) without any known thrombophilic factor, of which 17 had previously suffered from thrombosis (deep venous thrombosis in 14 and ischaemic stroke in 3), and 56 controls matched for age and sex. Additionally, we also evaluated 20 plasma samples with an international normalised ratio (INR) between 1.5 and 5.0 obtained from patients with atrial fibrillation but without a history of embolic events that were under treatment with acenocumarol. Thrombin generation was measured as ETP with a chromogenic assay in an automated analyser. Factor VIII, von Willebrand factor antigen, prothrombin fragment 1.2, D-dimer and plasmin-antiplasmin complexes were also measured. BD patients showed higher ETP values than controls (471.3± 49.3 vs. 427.5± 31.3 mA; p