Aim: to determine whether Behçet's disease affects haemostatic function.
Setting: University Hospital, Turkey.
Patients: one hundred and twenty-seven consecutive patients with Behçet's disease, 34 of whom with a history of vascular involvement.
Methods: prothrombin fragment 1+2 tissue plasminogen activator, protein S and C, antithrombin, fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, thrombomodulin and prothrombin time (PT) were measured in patient plasma.
Results: soluble thrombomodulin was significantly lower and von Willebrand factor (vWF) and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) significantly higher in Behçet's patients. Patients with vascular involvement showed the highest levels of vWF and tPA. There was no activation of coagulation, not even in patients with an active disease at the time of sampling.
Conclusion: there were indirect signs of endothelial activity or damage, particularly in patients with vascular involvement. Coagulation was not activated.
Copyright 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.