Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 Venous thrombosis is one of the important causes of morbidity and mortality all over the world. Elevated plasma homocysteine is known as a cause of vein morphology changes and endothelial dysfunction which lead to platelet activation, fibrinolysis inhibition and finally atherothrombosis. In this study, we evaluated the role of homocysteine in atherothrombosis as compared to the control group with no history of thrombosis.

 Materials and Methods

 In this case control study‚ 100 patients with arterial thrombosis (54 men and 46 women) as the case group and 68 as control (40 men and 28 women) were involved. Blood samples were taken in the EDTA-located tube and transported to the laboratory for fasting plasma homocysteine to be measured by ELISA kits. Some data such as age, sex, thrombosis history, and familial thrombosis history were taken from the patients through a questionnaire. We measured fasting plasma homocysteine in both case and control groups by ELISA method. The statistical analysis was performed by SPSS statistical software using T-Test and Chi-square odds ratio was also calculated.

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 Results

 The average rates of homocysteine in the case and control group were 23.85 ± 18.4 and 11.48 ± 3.4 µmol/lit respectively showing statistical significance. The hyperhomocysteinemia frequency in the case group was 48%, whereas 17.6% in the control. A significant difference was also observed in the frequency of hyperhomocysteinemia between male (70.4%) and female (21.7%) in the case group. There was a moderate correlation between homocysteine level and age in the case group.

 Conclusions

 According to the achieved odds ratio (2.72), hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for thrombosis. It means that homocysteine measurement should be determined in thrombosis-affected or high risk patients. Dietary supplementation with low doses of folate and vitamin B₁₂ should be considered in affected persons.

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 Key words : Homocysteine, Venous thrombosis, Risk factor