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Objective High lipid levels play important roles in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and some authors suggest vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of vitamin D status on lipid profile in premenopausal women. Patients and methods A total of 315 nonsmoking premenopausal female volunteers without diabetes mellitus were included in the study. Patients were divided into four subgroups. The groups were as follows: patients with less than or equal to 12 ng/ml (group 1, n = 126) vitamin D levels, between 20 and 12 ng/ml (group 2, n = 48), between 30 and 20 ng/ml (group 3, n = 21), and at least 30 ng/ml (group 4, n = 120) vitamin D levels. Total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride (TG), and non-HDL-C levels of the four groups were compared. Results HDL-C levels of group 4 were the highest (P = 0.03), and TG and non-HDL-C levels of group 1 were the highest (P = 0.04, 0.016, respectively) in all groups. There was no significant difference between serum parathormone, calcium, and phosphorus levels of the four groups (P = 0.778, 0.121, 0.184, respectively). In unadjusted analysis, 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels were found to be correlated negatively with BMI (P = 0.0005), LDL-C (P = 0.01), and non-HDL-C (P = 0.003) and correlated positively with HDL-C levels (P = 0.006). After adjustments for age, sex, BMI, and log parathormone levels were made, no correlation was found between 25-hydroxy vitamin D and lipid (TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, and TG) levels (P = 0.91, 0.06, 0.95, 0.79, respectively). Conclusion There may be an association between vitamin D insufficiency and dyslipidemia. However, this association may depend on obesity. Cardiovasc Endocrinol 6:86-91

Objectives: This study aims to assess the level of pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) as an inflammatory marker and compare it with C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients with Behçet's disease (BD). Patients and methods: Forty-two patients with BD (15 males, 27 females; mean age 39.7±8.6 years; range 20 to 64 years) and 42 age-and sex-matched healthy controls (14 males, 28 females; mean age 40.8±8.2 year; range 25 to 60 years) were included in the study. Serum CRP and plasma PTX-3 levels were measured. Subgroup analyses were performed according to clinical manifestations of patients with BD. Results: Both PTX-3 and CRP levels were significantly higher in patients with BD than controls (1.33±0.29 vs 0.85±0.12, p<0.05 for PTX-3 and 0.71±0.13 vs 0.27±0.03, p<0.001 for CRP, respectively). Area under the curve was 0.633±0.062 vs 0.729±0.05, respectively. Mean PTX-3 and CRP levels were 1.1 vs 1.5, p=0.5; 0.5 vs 0.9, p=0.5; respectively, in patients with mucocutaneous involvement alone and with other involvements, whereas they were 0.9 vs 1.6, p=0.1; 0.5 vs 0.8, p=0.3; respectively, in patients with and without peripheral arthritis, and were 1.7 vs 0.9, p=0.06; 1.0 vs 0.5, p=0.07; respectively, in patients with and without uveitis. Conclusion: Although PTX-3 levels were higher in patients with BD than healthy controls, sensitivity and specificity of PTX-3 was not different than CRP in patients with BD.

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