Vascular endothelial growth factor in systemic lupus erythematosus - correlations with disease activity and nailfold capillaroscopy changes.

Vascular endothelial growth factor in systemic lupus erythematosus - correlations with disease activity and nailfold capillaroscopy changes. Rom J Morphol Embryol. 2015;56(3):1011-1016 Authors: Bărbulescu AL, Vreju AF, Bugă AM, Sandu RE, Criveanu C, Tudoraşcu DR, Gheonea IA, Ciurea PL Abstract Our study aimed to quantify serum VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) and its inter-relation with the severity of microvascular damage, assessed by nailfold capillaroscopy (NC), and to establish the possible relationship with disease activity score. We included 18 patients, diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 17 gender and age-matched control subjects. For determining serum VEGF, we used a Human VEGF Assay kit-IBL. NC was performed, according to the standard method, using a video-capillaroscope Videocap 3.0, DS Medica, by the same examiner, blinded to clinical and laboratory data. Serum VEGF registered a mean value of 68.99±71.06 pg÷mL for SLE patients and 31.84±11.74 pg÷mL for controls, differences statistically significant; depending on disease activity, we found a mean value of 60.11±57.74 pg÷mL, for patients with moderate disease activity vs. 30.96±11.51 pg÷mL for the ones with a low activity (p=0.014). We found a moderately positive correlation, statistically significant (p=0.015), between serum level of VEGF and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI). Performing NC, we found changes...
Source: Romanian Journal of Morphology and Embryology - Category: Journals (General) Tags: Rom J Morphol Embryol Source Type: research