الفهرس 
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Abstract
Summary
Behçet’s disease is a chronic, multi systemic disease of unknown etiology in which eye involvement is the most common cause of morbidity (Aflaki et al., 2008).
Many factors have been implicated in the etiology of BD, including immune system defects such as an increased response from T and B cells to heat shock proteins, changes in neutrophil activation and cytokine levels, endothelial cell dysfunctions, microbial factors and genetic predisposition (Elbay et al., 2015).
Previous studies have shown significant increases in serum and erythrocyte lipid peroxidation in patients with BD (Örema et al., 1997 and Kose et al., 2001). Additionally, there is a synergism between oxidative stress and systemic inflammatory response (Bayes et al., 2001).
In this context, oxidative stress, caused by inflammatory processes, could represent an endogenous reason for folate deficiency. Over depletion of folate in inflammation might cause elevation of total homocysteine (tHCY) concentrations in BD (Yesilova et al., 2005).
In the other hand, hyperhomocysteinaemia (HHcy) may cause lipid peroxidation, impaired vasomotor regulation, prothrombotic surface, and, therefore, vascular endothelial injury and atherothrombogenesis (Hamzaoui et al., 2010{b}).
The current study aimed to investigate the possible relation between serum homocysteine level and ocular involvement in patients with Behçet’s disease.
This study included thirty patients diagnosed to have Behҫet’s disease compared to twenty age and sex-matched healthy controls.
Patients were diagnosed according to the revised International Criteria for Behçet’s Disease (ICBD) (Davatchi et al., 2014).
Behҫet’s disease (BD) patients were subjected to routine history taking and physical examination; they also have been evaluated by an experienced ophthalmologist for the presence of ocular involvement. The patients were then categorized according to the presence or absence of eye involvement.
Both patients and controls groups were subjected to the analysis of serum homocysteine level by ELISA technique.
This study demonstrated the following:
Serum homocysteine level was found to be significantly higher in patients with Behҫet’s disease (37.87 ± 10.31) than in healthy controls (21.80 ± 5.47) {P value < 0.001*}.
We couldn’t detect a statistically significant difference between Behҫet’s patients with and without ocular involvement regarding serum homocysteine level.
The difference in mean serum homocysteine level between males and females in patients with eye involvement was statistically insignificant
The frequency of neurological involvement was found to be significantly higher in the group of patients without eye involvement than in the group with eye involvement.
In patients group with eye involvement, patients with a history of vascular affection were found to have significantly higher mean serum homocysteine level than those with vascular affection in patients group without eye involvement {P= 0.046}.
There were no statistically significant correlations between mean serum homocysteine level and either age or disease duration in patients with or in patients without eye involvement.
Conclusion
Plasma total homocysteine level (tHcy) is increased in patients with Behçet’s disease.
The difference in mean serum homocysteine level between patients with and patients without eye involvement did not reach the level of statistical significance.
Recommendations
Because hyperhomocysteinemia is a treatable risk factor, measurement and monitoring of tHcy levels may be a valuable index in investigating, managing and improving the outcome of patients with Behҫet’s disease.