The role of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor in children with familial mediterranean fever

Familial Mediterranean Fever is an autoinflammatory disease characterized by inflammatory attacks in serous tissues often accompanied by endothelial dysfunction. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor, which is an indicator of endothelial dysfunction in children with familial Mediterranean fever.

This study include 57 children with familial Mediterranean fever and 31 children as healthy controls. Blood samples were collected from all participants to measure their endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor, complete blood count and C-reactive protein. In addition, inflammatory markers, mutation analyses, and microalbuminuria were examined only in the patient group.

The mean age of the patient group was 9.8 ± 4.0 (2.5-18) years, while the mean age of control group was 9.5 ± 3.9 (2.5-16) years (p=0.808). Study group had significantly higher C-reactive protein levels and systolic and diastolic blood pressures and lower endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor values than the control group (p=0.0001, p=0.002, p=0.035 and p=0.009, respectively).

Low levels of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor, high levels C-reactive protein and high blood pressure in patients with familial Mediterranean fever can be attributed to the changes in the endothelium resulting from subacute inflammation.