Arterial elasticity measurement in patients with Behcet's disease

Abstract

Behcet's syndrome is a chronic, multisystem disorder characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulceration, skin lesions and uveitis. In addition, 25% of patients develop vascular complications, which may include superficial thrombophlebitis, deep vein and arterial thrombosis and arterial aneurysm formation. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is an important factor in determining cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. It is an index of arterial wall stiffness and inversely related to the arterial distensibility. In this study we investigated the arterial distensibility in Behcet's Disease (BD) by PWV. We studied 50 patients with BD and 20 healthy subjects without known cardiovascular disease. Arterial distensibility was assessed by All patients underwent pulse wave analysis (HDI/Pulse Wave model CR-2000) to determine large and small vessel compliances. Large arterial elastisite index (LAEI) and small arterial elastisite index (SAEI) of the radial artery were determined from an internal algorhythm based on diastolic decay features of the calibrated radial pulse contour using a modified Windkessel model. The mean ages, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, large arterial elastisite index (LAE), small arterial elastisite index (SAE) of Behcet's disease and control subjects were 37 +/- 8.323 and 37 +/- 7.984 years, 125,8 +/- 3 and 124,3 +/- 11.4 mmHg, 68.5 +/- 7.7 and 68.5 +/- 7.7 mmHg, 13.3 +/- 3.6 and 13.6 +/- 3.64 mL/mm Hg X 10, 5.2 +/- 2.43 and 6.01 +/- 2.6 mL/mm Hg X 100 respectively. Differences between all parameters studied were not found to be statistically significant (p > 0.05). Furthermore, in patients group there were no significant correlation between disease duration and LAEI(C1) and SAEI(C2) (p=0.267 and p=0.456, respectively). Eventually, no significant correlation was shown between increase in systemic involvement, LAEI and SAEI values (p=0.447 and p=0.345, respectively). In this study, it was shown that Behcet's disease did not change arterial stiffness parameters used as a strong indicator of atherosclerosis. Further, it was determined that disease duration and increase in systemic involvement did not alter arterial stiffness parameters.