Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2002 Jan;46(1):50-4.
doi: 10.1067/mjd.2002.118338.

Increased nitric oxide production in patients with Behçet's disease: is it a new activity marker?

Cem Evereklioglu  1 , Yusuf Turkoz, Hamdi Er, H Serhat Inaloz, Emin Ozbek, Mustafa Cekmen
Affiliations

Increased nitric oxide production in patients with Behçet's disease: is it a new activity marker?

Cem Evereklioglu et al. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2002 Jan.

Abstract

Background: The origin of Behçet's disease (BD) is unclear. One of the prominent features of BD is vasculitis and thrombosis as a result of endothelial dysfunction. Because nitric oxide (NO) is synthesized by endothelium, we considered it as an interesting target of investigation in BD.

Objective: Our purpose was to define the level of NO in the serum of patients with BD and its relation with disease activity.

Methods: As an indicator for NO, serum total nitrite levels (end product of NO) were measured by Griess reaction in 52 consecutive patients with BD and compared with 32 age- and sex-matched healthy staff volunteers. Serum NO levels of active and inactive patients were compared.

Results: The overall serum nitrite levels in patients with BD (40.25 +/- 10.51 micromol/L) were significantly higher (P <.001) than those in healthy volunteers (25.09 +/- 5.33 micromol/L). The difference in serum total nitrite levels among patients with active BD (46.74 +/- 10.62 micromol/L) and inactive BD (33.24 +/- 3.73 micromol/L) was significant (P <.001). Significant differences were observed in serum nitrite levels between patients in the inactive period of BD and the control group (P <.001).

Conclusion: Increased NO production might be responsible for the overall inflammatory process of BD. NO seems to be related to disease activity.

PubMed Disclaimer