ADMA and endothelial function in ankylosing spondilitis

Introduction: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disase with unknown etiology. Endothelial dysfunction is present in AS. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether there are abnormalities in asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) metabolism and to investigate the correlation of labaratory parameters with clinical indexes in AS patients.Patients and Methods: Forty-five patients diagnosed with AS (Group 1) in the İnternal Medicine Department of the Medical Faculty of Celal Bayar University were enrolled in the study. The control group (Group 2) consisted of 30 healthy volunteers. Subjects without any classical cardiovascular (CV) risk factors were studied. Fasting glucose, serum lipids, hsCRP, ADMA, ox-LDL, arginine and sitrüline levels were determined. Patients were also evaluated with the BASMI, BASFI, and the BASDAI Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index. ADMA and ox-LDL levels were measured with ELISA methods. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS for Windows program (Version 18.0). For comparison between the groups Mann Whitney U test and for corralation analysis, Spearman?s rank correlation coefficient were used.Result: A total of 45 AS patients (40.27±11.94 years; 29M/16F) and 30 controls (40.53 ±12.94 years; 21M/9F) were studied. HsCRP, and arginine and arginine/sitruine were significantly increased in the patients group respectively (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.004). Serum ADMA levels did not differ between the groups (p>0.05). Correlation analysis yielded significant correlations between, hsCRP and sitrülin, sitrülin and HDL-cholesterol, BASFI ındex and arginine/sitrüline ratio, BASDAI index and LDL levels respectively(r= -0.341, p=0.022, r=0.333, p=0.025, r= 0.321, p=0.032, r= -0.349,p=0.019).Conclusion: The increased hs-CRP levels negatively correlating with serum sitrüline levels and serum sitrüline levels positively correlating with HDL cholesterol levels could define the link between the cardio vascular risk and AS. On the other hand, BASFI index and arginine/sitrüline ratio correlations suggest that serum arginine and sitrüline levels could be beneficial parameters in the duration of the disase.Key Words:AS, hs- CRP, arginine, sitrüline, ADMA