Ao. Aydintug et al., ELEVATED LEVELS OF SOLUBLE INTERCELLULAR-ADHESION MOLECULE-1 CORRELATE WITH DISEASE-ACTIVITY IN BEHCETS-DISEASE, Rheumatology international, 15(2), 1995, pp. 75-78
The objective of this study was to measure soluble intercellular adhes
ion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) in patients with Behcet's disease (ED) and to
analyse the relationship of sICAM-1 levels with clinical and some lab
oratory measures of disease activity. Forty patients with ED fulfillin
g the International Study Group Criteria for the diagnosis of ED and 2
0 healthy controls were studied. Twenty patients had active, and 20 pa
tients had inactive disease. Serum sICAM-1 was determined by a sandwic
h ELISA. The mean (+/-SD) sICAM-1 level was significantly higher in th
e whole ED group (297.3 +/- 86.6 ng/ml) than in the healthy controls (
213 +/- 83.5 ng/ml; P < 0.05). The mean sICAM-1 levels in active and i
nactive ED patients were 315.7 +/- 76.3 ng/ml and 258.3 +/- 73.3 ng/ml
, respectively. The mean sICAM-1 level in active patients was signific
antly higher than in inactive patients and healthy controls (P < 0.02
and P < 0.001, respectively). No statistically significant difference
in mean sICAM-1 levels was found between inactive ED patients and heal
thy controls (P > 0.05). There was no statistically significant differ
ence between the mean sICAM-1 levels of active patients with (351.3 +/
- 77.2 ng/ml) or without vascular lesions (292 +/- 68.8; P > 0.05). In
spite of a positive correlation between disease activity and both ery
throcyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein (CRP; P < 0.01), we
found no correlation between sICAM-1 and either of them (P > 0.05). T
he elevated levels of sICAM-1 may be due to endothelial cell activatio
n and/or damage or may be the result of inflammation. In either case i
t did not seem to be superior to more conventional measures of disease
activity.