Determination of serum visfatin levels in patients with Behçet’s disease: A case–control study

Abstract

Aim of the workBehçet’s disease (BD) is an inflammatory, systemic and chronic disorder with unknown etiology affecting multiple systems. Visfatin is a new adipokine with insulin-mimetic properties and pro-inflammatory function. The serum visfatin levels were evaluated in BD patients to investigate its role in the pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of the disease. Patients and methodsForty BD patients were recruited from the Behçet’s disease clinic at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in southern Iran and 40 healthy control subjects of matching age, sex and body mass index (BMI) were also included. Serum visfatin level was measured using ELISA. ResultsThe 40 BD patients included 16 males and 24 females. Seventeen had active clinical manifestations; 16 with oral ulcer, 5 with genital ulcer, 6 with arthritis and 2 with uveitis. The mean age of the BD patients was 34.95±9.6years and mean BMI was 23.98±4.44. There were no significant differences between cases (5.05±3.05ng/ml) and controls (4.72±2.84ng/ml) in the visfatin level (p=0.61). The difference in the visfatin level between patients with active and inactive manifestations did not reach statistical significance (6.13±3.20 and 4.25±2.73, respectively; p=0.07). There was no significant difference according to the gender of the patients or the presence of clinical manifestations. ConclusionIn view of the results in this study, visfatin levels were not significantly different between cases and controls. There was a tendency to a higher level of serum visfatin in active BD patients compared to the inactive cases; however, the difference was unremarkable.