RESUMO
Homocysteine ( Hcy) is an independent risk factor for a variety of diseases and closely related to cardiac-cerebralvascu-lar diseases, neurological diseases, diabetes and diabetic com-plications. High homocysteine levels can significantly increase the recurrence risks of cardiac-cerebralvascular events and stroke in patients with stroke, leading to high all-cause mortality. The risk of Alzheimer’s disease is increased by 1. 8 fold when the concentration of Hcy is over 14 μmol·L-1 . For each 5 μmol· L-1 increase in plasma Hcy in diabetes patients, the mortality rate increases by 5 fold in the next five years. High Hcy triggers the pathogenesis of diseases via multiple mechanisms including oxidative stress, lesions of vascular endothelial cells, prolifera-tion of vascular smooth muscle cells, dysfunction of coagulation and lipid metabolism and genomic hypomethylation etc.