Avaliação da função endotelial em pacientes com Doença de Behçet em remissão

Abstract

Endothelial dysfunction is an initial stage of the atherogenic process, which may be evaluated by a non-invasive method (flow-mediated dilation - FMD) and has a well-established prognostic value for cardiovascular (CV) risk. Currently, there is no evidence of increased CV mortality in Behçet's disease (BD), although its association with endothelial dysfunction has been described. There are still doubts in the literature whether the presence of chronic vascular inflammation might trigger the development of atherosclerosis, despite BD remission, which is the reason why this study was conducted. We analyzed 24 subjects in this cross-sectional study (12 patients with BD in remission and 12 subjects matched by gender and age). Endothelial function was analyzed by FMD, with the lowest median presented by the BD group (2.025% - IQR 7.785 versus 5.46% - IQR 3.625, p = 0.18). The median total cholesterol in the BD group was lower than the controls (168 mg/dL - IQR 46 and 216.5 mg/dL - IQR 54, respectively; p = 0.0193). In the right carotid artery, intima–media thickness was equal to 0.740 - IQR 0.16 in the patients and 0.740 - IQR 0.11 for the controls (p = 0.9473); on the left, 0.725 - IQR 0.13 and 0.745 - IQR 0.120 (p = 0.4333), respectively.The lower median trend of FMD in patients with BD suggests endothelial dysfunction, despite clinical remission of the inflammatory disease, although our study is limited by the sample size and greater use of statins