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Mediators of Inflammation
Volume 2011, Article ID 215057, 6 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/215057
Clinical Study

Serum Asymmetric Dimethylarginine, Nitrate, Vitamin B12, and Homocysteine Levels in Individuals with Pulmonary Embolism

Murat Altuntaş,1 Figen Atalay,1 Murat Can,2 Remzi Altın,1 and Meltem Tor1

1Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Zonguldak 67600, Turkey
2Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Zonguldak 67600, Turkey

Received 5 March 2011; Revised 6 April 2011; Accepted 1 May 2011

Academic Editor: Giuseppe Valacchi

Copyright © 2011 Murat Altuntaş et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

We aimed to analyze the pre- and posttreatment serum asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), nitrate (NO3), vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels in pulmonary embolism (PTE) patients and to determine the prognostic value of these variables in predicting chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). This study was conducted in 64 patients. The patients were classified into the two groups: patients with normal pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) (group I) and patients with high PAP with persistent lung perfusion defects or who died at the end of 3 months of therapy (group II). We found statistically significant differences between two groups with respect to the partial oxygen pressure, the oxygen saturation, and the PAP, but there was no difference between the two groups with respect to the pretreatment ADMA, NO3, or homocysteine levels. The vitamin B12 levels were higher in group II. The NO3 levels increased and the ADMA and vitamin B12 levels decreased with treatment in both groups. These results suggest that these parameters are not predictive of the development of CTEPH.