The Assessment of Serum Endocan Levels in Children With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Yasin YILMAZ1, Rana BERRU DURMUŞ1, Başak SARAÇOĞLU1, Sezgin ŞAHİN2, Amra ADROVIC2, Kenan BARUT2, Sevda ÖZEL YILDIZ3, Özgür KASAPÇOPUR2, Rukiye EKER ÖMEROĞLU4

1Department of Pediatrics, Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
2Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Rheumatology, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
3Department of Biostatistics, Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
4Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Rheumatology, Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

Keywords: Endothelial damage; juvenile idiopathic arthritis; serum endocan

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the levels of serum endocan in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).
Patients and methods: Sixty-seven children with JIA (30 males, 37 females; mean age 10.4±4.9 years; range 2 to 18 years) and a sex- and age- matched healthy control group of 39 children (16 males, 23 females; mean age 9.3±4.1 years; range 1 to 17 years) were recruited. Patients with JIA were divided into two groups as the clinically active JIA group (n=27) and inactive JIA group (n=40).
Results: The median serum endocan level in patients with JIA was significantly higher than in the control group (633.75 ng/L vs. 379.76 ng/L, p<0.01). Comparison between patients with active JIA and inactive JIA was not significant in terms of endocan levels (618.70 ng/L vs. 687.36 ng/L, p=0.34). There was a weak negative correlation between Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire scores of patients with JIA and serum endocan levels.
Conclusion: The high level of serum endocan highlighted the endothelial damage in patients with JIA.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Financial Disclosure

This study received a grant from the Istanbul University Scientific Research Project Unit (BAP) (no.56165).

Acknowledgments

We gratefully thank Mr. David Chapman for kindly providing language revision.