Homocysteine: an activity marker in Behçet's disease?

Summary Background Behcet's disease (BD) is a chronic multisystem inflammatory disorder commonly complicated by vascular thrombosis. Objective In 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 Behcet's disease. Methods Sixty-four patients fulfilling the criteria of the International Study Group for Behcet's disease (48 males, 16 females, 33 ± 8 years) were enrolled. They were separated into two groups with respect to activation features of Behcet'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. Results Mean 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 p p p Conclusion Hyperhomocysteinaemia may be responsible for the endothelial damage in BD and assumed to be a risk factor and a marker for activation of BD.