Test
Homocysteine, Quantitative
Pathology
Summary
Homocysteine is a sulphur containing amino acid. There is an association between elevated levels of circulating homocysteine and various vascular and cardiovascular disorders. Clinically the measurement of homocysteine is considered important to diagnose homocystinuria, to identify individuals with or at risk of developing cobalamin or folate deficiency & to assess risk factor for Cardiovascular Disease ( CVD) for which the recommendations are: Specially useful in young CVD patients ( < 40 yrs) In known cases of CVD, high homocysteine levels should be used as a prognostic marker for CVD events and mortality CVD patients with homocysteine levels > 15 umol/L belong to a high risk group Increased homocysteine levels with low vitamin concentrations should be handled as a potential vitamin deficiency case.
