The investigation of neutrophil /lymphocyte ratio, sedimentation, C-reactive protein levels according to target organ and tissue involvement in patients with behçet's disease

Behçet's disease is a multisystemic and inflammatory disease which is characterized by oral, genital ulcers, vasculitis involving vessels of all sizes and cutaneous, ocular, vascular, articular, neurological and gastrointestinal involvement. There is currently no specific laboratory test which reflects activation status of Behçet's disease. Inflammation markers such as serum erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C- reactive protein (CRP) and neutrophil/leukocyte ratio (NLR) are being used to evaluate disease activity. The aim of our study is to retrospectively investigate NLR, ESR and CRP levels in patients with active/inactive clinical disease status in relation with target tissue and organ involvement. Totally 513 patients diagnosed with Behçet's disease who are 18 years or older, are included in the study. 355 patients (% 69.2) have active disease, 158 patients (% 30.8) have inactive disease. In patients with active Behçet's disease; mean ESR, CRP and NLR levels are found to be statistically significantly higher compared to the ones with inactive Behçet's disease (respectively p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001). In patients with genital ulcers ESR (p=0.047), in patients with erythema nodosum-like lesion ESR (p=0.028), in patients with neurological involvement NLR (p=0.008) and in patients with cardiovascular involvement NLR (p=0.001), ESR (p=0.001) and CRP (p=0.001) levels are detected to be higher. However, in patients with oral ulcers, superficial thromboflebitis, papulopustuler lesions, ocular, arthritis, athralgia and gastrointestinal involvement, there have been no statistically significant difference between NLR, ESR or CRP levels. With the data obtained from our study, it has been concluded that NLR, ESR, CRP levels can be used to predict clinical activation for Behçet disease and NLR could provide some clue for Behçet's disease's ethiopathogenesis as a basic, cheap, non-invasive activation marker. Key Words: Behçet's disease, NLR, ESR, CRP