Evaluat？on Of The Homocyste？ne Level W？th The Relat？onsh？p Between The Decub？t？s Ulcers, Aterosclerosis And D？abetes Mell？tus

Abstract Introduction: Homocysteine is an essential metabolite ofmethionine that can not be taken with the diet. It is associated with serious diseases including moderate hyperhomocy steinemia, coronary artery disease, stroke, alzheimer, schizophrenia and spina bifida. Decubitis ulcers are a health problemthat increases morbidity and mortality, cause to stay at the hos-pital for a long time and increases the cost of treatment. Itis a process that begins with a decrease in tissue perfusion inthe body area where exposed to prolonged pressure, and cango on until tissue death.In this study, the relationship between homocysteine and phase of wound, atherosclerosis and diabetes also the relationship between beddependent durationand atherosclerosis and diabetes were examined. Materials and Methods: 34 patients with decubitis ulcers who being treated at the palliative care center at TheMinistry of Health Ordu University Education and ResearchHospital were included in the study. Patients were classified according to bed dependency period, phase of decubitisulcer, homocysteine level, presence of atherosclerosis andpresence of diabetes mellitus. One way variance analysis wasused to determine whether or not there was a difference inbed dependency times and homocysteine levels accordingto the phase of decubitis ulcer. Student t-test was used to determine whether there was a difference in bed dependencytimes and homocysteine levels according to the presence ofatherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus. Whether or not there was a relationship between the appearance of atherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus and the decubitis ulcer phasewas determined by chi-square analysis. Bedside dependencytimes and homocysteine levels were correlated with age andhomocysteine levels were estimated by Pearson correlation coefficient. Findings:There was no significant difference in the du-ration of bed dependence and homocysteine levels of the pa-tients in terms of decubitis ulcer phase. However, it was observed that homocysteine levels of patients with clinically3rd and 4th wound stage were higher than patients with wound stage 2. In patients in stages 3rd and 4th, mild homocysteine is elevated (values of 15-30 Mmol / L). According tothe presence of atherosclerosis, there was no significant difference between bed-residence time and homocysteine levelsof the patients. According to diabetes, there was no significant difference between bedresidence time and homocysteine levels of the patients (P> 0,05). Furthermore, no relationship was found between the decubitis ulcer progressionof patients