Background/Aims : Behcet's disease (BD) is a systemic disorder associated with a characteristic vasculitis that can involve both veins and arteries of all sizes. Endothelial activation or injury is a characteristic feature of BD. Endothelial dysfunction is widely regarded as being the initial lesion in the development of atherosclerosis. The carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) is a widely accepted marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. We aimed to determine the carotid IMT in BD patients with using high-resolution B-mode Doppler ultrasonography.Methods : We studied 40 patients (24 males, mean age: 39.1±8.5 years) who were diagnosed by the international diagnostic criteria of Behcet's disease and 20 healthy controls (13 males, mean age: 40.2±5.1 years), and the two groups were matched by age and gender. No subject in either group had a history of atherosclerosis or its complications. The clinical data, including the age of onset, the duration of disease, a history of medication, the activity score and the laboratory data were analyzed.Results : The carotid IMT in the BD group was significantly higher than that in the control group (0.71±0.22 mm vs. 0.59±0.09 mm, respectively, p<0.01). Cardiac and major vessel involvements were not identified in the BD group. However, minor vascular involvements were documented in 2 patients with deep vein thrombosis, in 4 patients with superficial thrombophlebitis and in 2 patients with pseudoaneurysm. The carotid IMT in the patients with posterior uveitis or retinal vasculitis was higher than that of the patients without these findings (0.85±0.21 mm vs. 0.64±0.10 mm, respectively, p=0.007), but there was no difference of the IMT according to minor vascular involvement.Conclusions : Despite that there was no significant cardiovascular involvement in the BD patients, the carotid IMT was significantly higher in the BD patients as compared with the healthy controls.

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cute myocardial infarction (AMI) is associated with increased short-and long-term mortality. 1 The development of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction complicating an AMI is particularly serious because these patients have a several-fold increase in the risk of mortality compared with AMI survivors without LV dysfunction, 1,2 or compared with nonischemic heart failure (HF). 3 The risk of LV dysfunction is greatest in the first few days after AMI. Studies have demonstrated that patients undergoing treatment for an initial AMI have a 22% incidence of acute HF during hospitalization, and the incidence in patients with recurrent myocardial infarction (MI) is 33%. 4,5 Because of the high incidence of acute HF early after acute MI, the Circulation Journal Vol.71, August 2007 emphasis of previous studies has been on the predictors and outcomes of HF immediately following MI.So far, several studies have demonstrated the factors affecting recovery of LV function (LVF) in patients with AMI, 6-11 but little is known about the predictors of nonrecovery of LVF in patients with LV dysfunction complicating an AMI who have undergone successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). It is very important to identify the factors that are important for nonrecovery of LVF in AMI survivors without a history of HF before the index MI because a better understanding of these factors will better identify high-risk patients more likely to benefit from more intensive medical therapy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the factors predicting the nonrecovery of LVF in patients with LV dysfunction complicated with AMI who underwent successful primary PCI. Methods Study PopulationWe examined 108 patients ≥18 years of age with first ST segment elevation MI, symptom onset within 12 h of underCirc J 2007; 71: 1219 -1224 (Received March 15, 2007 revised manuscript received April 11, 2007; accepted May 2, 2007 Background Although ischemic heart failure is a major cause of mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), the factors that may influence the nonrecovery of left ventricular function (LVF) after an AMI are still unclear. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of nonrecovery of LVF in patients with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction (defined as an echocardiographic ejection fraction (EF) <40%) complicated with AMI who undergo successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods and Results LVF recovery was defined as improvement of LVEF more than 10% compared with baseline LVEF at follow-up. One hundred and eight patients with LV dysfunction after AMI were divided into 2 groups according to the LVF recovery at follow-up: patients with LVF recovery (n=64) vs patients without LVF recovery (n=44). The follow-up LVEF was measured at 8±4 months after PCI. Patients without LVF recovery were older (76±13 years vs 59±14 years, p=0.023) and the baseline peak monocyte count, creatine kinase, and troponin I levels were significantly higher in patients without LVF recovery than in patients with LVF recovery...

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