vascular injuries in FMS patients

[Guest guest]

Nagoya J Med Sci 2000 Nov;63(3-4):115-22 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut

Evaluation of vascular injury with proinflammatory cytokines, thrombomodulin and

fibronectin in patients with primary fibromyalgia.

Pay S, Calguneri M, Caliskaner Z, Dinc A, Apras S, Ertenli I, Kiraz S, Cobankara

V

Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Department of Rheumatology, Ankara,

Turkey. spay@...

OBJECTIVE: Cold intolerance, cold induced peripheral vasospasm, Raynaud's

phenomenon, livedo reticularis and immunoglobulin deposition in the skin are

often encountered clinical and laboratory findings in patients with primary

fibromyalgia (FM). These findings are suggestive of vascular injury. METHODS:

Eighty patients (4 male, 76 female) with fulfilling primary FM criteria (FM (+)

patient group), 60 patients (3 male, 57 female) with chronic musculoskeletal

complaints but without FM (FM (-) patient control group) and 40 healthy

volunteers (1 male, 39 female) without musculoskeletal complaints (healthy

control group) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The study was

carried out in two steps. In the first step, the clinical findings, routine

laboratory tests, autoantibodies and radiological findings were investigated.

The second step were consisted of the laboratory investigations of

thrombomodulin and fibronectin as the mediators indicating vascular injury and

proinflammatory cytokines in FM patients with Raynaud's phenomenon and/or livedo

reticularis and in control groups. RESULTS: There were no differences between

study and control groups with regard to laboratory, radiological and

immunological (ANA, AntidsDNA, ENA, anticardiolipin IgG and IgM) results. No

statistically significant differences were found in the levels of

proinflammatory cytokines between FM (+) patient group and control groups (p >

0.05). Thrombomodulin was also shown statistically insignificant difference

between FM (+) patient group and control groups (p > 0.05). However,

fibronectin, another mediator of vascular injury, was higher in FM (+) patient

group and the differences between FM (+) patients and each control groups were

statistically significant (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our results were suggestive

of the presence of a non-immunological vascular injury in FM patients with

Raynaud's phenomenon and/or livedo reticularis.

PMID: 11201985