No abstract

Hyperhomocysteinemia has been shown to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease as well as retinal vascular occlusion. Because of the epidemiological, dietary, genetic and environmental diversity among the different countries, each country should establish the reference interval of homocysteine of their own population for recommending appropriate medical decision limits. Hence a total of 1,288 apparently healthy subjects including 636 male and 652 female were enrolled in the present study to determine the reference intervals of homocysteine in an Indian population. Results of the study were presented as mean, standard deviation, median and 2.5th and 97.5th percentile with the 0.90 confidence interval of each percentile values of homocysteine along with decade-wise changes.

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to differentiate ischemic central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) from nonischemic CRVO during the early acute phase using plasma homocysteine as a biochemical marker.MethodsFasting plasma homocysteine, serum vitamin B12, and folate levels were measured in 108 consecutive unilateral elderly adult (age >50 years) ischemic CRVO patients in the absence of local and systemic disease and compared with a total of 144 age and sex matched nonischemic CRVO patients and 120 age and sex matched healthy control subjects.ResultsHomocysteine level was significantly increased in the patients with ischemic CRVO in comparison with nonischemic CRVO patients (p = 0.009) and also in comparison with control subjects (p < 0.001). Analysis also showed that hyperhomocysteinemia was associated with increased incidence of ischemic CRVO (odds ratio, 18) than that for nonischemic CRVO (odds ratio, 4.5). Serum vitamin B12 and folate levels were significantly lower (p < 0.001) in CRVO patients compared to the control but were not significantly different between nonischemic and ischemic CRVO patients (p > 0.1).ConclusionsHyperhomocysteinemia can be regarded as useful in differentiating nonischemic and ischemic CRVO during the early acute phase in absence of local and systemic disease in the elderly adult (age >50 years) population.