ELEVATED LEVELS OF SOLUBLE INTERCELLULAR-ADHESION MOLECULE-1 CORRELATE WITH DISEASE-ACTIVITY IN BEHCETS-DISEASE

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.