Publications by authors named "Askin Ates"
Background: Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS) is one of the most common acquired causes of hypercoagulability. The 2023 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) / European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) APS Classification Criteria were specified as new APS classification criteria with high specificity for use in observational studies and research. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the 2023 ACR/EULAR APS classification criteria in a real-world rheumatology department.
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- The study aimed to compare patients with seronegative and seropositive primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) by analyzing their medical records from 2010 to 2023.
- Key findings revealed that seropositive patients exhibited more extraarticular manifestations, while dry mouth was notably more common in seronegative patients.
- Additionally, while the two groups showed similar rates of certain complications, seropositive patients accounted for all the deaths observed in the study.
Article Synopsis
- The study analyzed temporal artery biopsy (TAB) results of 90 patients diagnosed with Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) to determine histopathological findings related to definite vasculitis based on 2022 ACR/EULAR criteria.
- Of the patients, 73.3% were initially diagnosed with vasculitis, and additional evaluation of specimens led to a further 41.6% showing definite vasculitis signs.
- The analysis also revealed that biopsy length was a key indicator for diagnosing definite vasculitis, with a notable sensitivity and specificity ratio, suggesting that longer biopsies improve diagnostic accuracy.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the association of rheumatoid arthritis-related lung disease (RA-LD) and its subtypes with all-cause mortality.
Materials And Methods: For the present analyses, patients with RA who underwent computed tomography of the chest (chest-CT) were evaluated. RA-LD was defined in 4 subtypes as follows: interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD), airway disease (RA-AD), rheumatoid pulmonary nodules (RA-PN), and RA-related pleural disease (RA-PD).
Article Synopsis
- This study evaluated the presence of hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA) undergoing biological treatments, using data from a registry in Türkiye.
- The findings revealed high screening rates for HBV (97% in RA and 94.2% in SpA), with varying rates of positive test results for HBV and HCV; older patients with comorbidities were more likely to test positive for HBV.
- The most commonly prescribed biologic treatments included adalimumab and etanercept, with one reported case of HBV reactivation in a patient treated with rituximab and preventative medicine.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers analyzed data from 330 patients diagnosed with GCA, finding that 18.8% experienced relapses during a follow-up period, and only 23.8% were able to stop GC treatment entirely.
- * The study highlighted that a significant portion of patients (66.2%) had at least one indication of damage due to vasculitis, and there were also considerable side effects related to GC treatment.
Background: Previous reports indicate that juvenile Behçet's disease (BD) may have a different course than adult BD. However, as a direct comparison with adult Behçet patients has only been made in a limited number of studies, the issue is still controversial.
Objectives: The primary aim of our study was to compare clinical manifestations in a large cohort of juvenile and adult Behçet patients registered in a single centre.
The factors predicting development of serious infections in ANCA-associated vasculitis.
Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis
June 2023
Article Synopsis
- ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) is a rare disease that makes blood vessels inflamed and can lead to serious infections.
- The study looked at 84 patients with AAV to find out what increases the risk of getting serious infections that need hospitalization.
- It found that having lung and kidney problems, being older than 65, and having high levels of a protein called C-reactive protein (CRP) were important factors that made infections more likely.
Article Synopsis
- The study looked at how certain treatments can unexpectedly cause skin problems like paradoxical psoriasis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA).
- Out of thousands of patients, about 136 had these unexpected skin problems, mostly after taking specific medications, and most patients were switched to new treatments to help.
- The results showed that switching medications usually worked well, and certain groups of patients, like smokers, were impacted differently by these skin reactions.
Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic systemic disease characterized by vascular damage, autoimmunity, and fibrosis in the skin and internal organs. In this study, we tried to determine the causes of severe infection in patients with SSc and to reveal the factors associated with severe infection.
Methods: We retrospectively examined 214 SSc patients between January 2010 and August 2020.
Article Synopsis
- This study aimed to compare the occurrence of Helicobacter pylori infection in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who experienced gastrointestinal intolerance due to methotrexate (MTX) and those who did not.
- Out of 390 analyzed patients, 41% exhibited MTX-related gastrointestinal intolerance, with higher rates of H. pylori and inflammation found in that group.
- Logistic regression showed that both the presence of H. pylori and the use of specific biologic medications were significantly linked to the gastrointestinal issues caused by MTX.
Rituximab experience from a single centre for patients with rheumatoid arthritis-related interstitial lung disease.
Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis
September 2022
Objective: To demonstrate the effects of rituximab (RTX) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-related interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD).
Methods: A total of 165 patients who used RTX for the management of rheumatoid arthritis were retrospectively scrutinised. Among these, 26 patients diagnosed with RA-ILD were analysed (61.
Objective: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has been resulting in increased hospital occupancy rates. Rheumatic patients cannot still reach to hospitals, or they hesitate about going to a hospital even they are able to reach. We aimed to show the effect of the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on the treatment of biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or spondyloarthritis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We aimed to evaluate quality of life (QoL), disease activity, compliance to treatment, patient and physician preferences for route of administration (RoA), status of health and pain in RA patients starting advanced treatments or needing a switch, and the factors associated with patient preferences.
Methods: A multicentre, prospective, observational and 1-year follow-up study was conducted, between 2015 and 2020, in adult RA patients using advanced treatments for the first time or needing a switch in their current treatments. All the data collected were entered into electronic case report forms.
Objectives: To analyse the clinical and laboratory factors associated with bamboo spine.
Methods: Data of patients fulfilling the 2009 ASAS classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis, registered in the national, multicentre, longitudinal, and observational database of TReasure was analysed. Radiographs were assessed using the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Radiologic Index (BASRI).
This study aimed to compare Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) test in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA) patients scheduled for biological and targeted synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in a Bacillus Calmette-Guérin-vaccinated population. Adult RA (n = 206) and SpA (n = 392) patients from the TReasure database who had both TST and QFT-GIT prior to initiation of biological and targeted synthetic DMARDs were included in the study. Demographic and disease characteristics along with pre-biologic DMARD and steroid use were recorded.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Rheumatoid arthritis associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) is a major concern in RA. These patients have been included in clinical trials and in the post-marketing setting of RA patients using tofacitinib. We aimed to assess the real-life efficacy and safety of tofacitinib in patients with RA-ILD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In this study, it was aimed to reveal the hospitalization reasons for patients diagnosed with primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) and potentially associated factors in a tertiary health center.
Method: One hundred and sixty-three pSS patients who regularly attended their follow-ups between January 2010 and May 2021 were included in the study. These patients' reasons for hospitalization, duration of hospitalization, and numbers of presenting to the hospital were recorded.
Article Synopsis
- The study looks at the demographic and clinical characteristics of vascular involvement in patients with Behçet's Syndrome (BS), analyzing data from 2,118 patients to find associations with vascular events.
- About 14.8% of patients had isolated superficial thrombophlebitis (ST), while 85.2% experienced major vascular events, with the most common being deep venous thrombosis.
- Male sex was found to significantly increase the risk of vascular involvement, and the presence of ST was identified as the strongest risk factor for major vascular events.
Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by microangiopathy, inflammation, fibrosis. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is common among SSc patients.
Objective: This study aims to define the clinical, laboratory, and serologic characteristics of SSc patients with ILD and to present the frequency of chest computed tomography features.
Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics of neuro-Behçet's syndrome (NBS) and to define the factors associated with relapses and poor outcome.
Methods: Among 2118 patients with Behçet's syndrome who fulfilled the international study group criteria, 208 (9.8%) patients had NBS.
Objective: Calprotectin is an inflammatory biomarker which assesses disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The objective of this study was to test whether serum calprotectin is associated with clinical and ultrasonographic disease activity in patients with RA, and to analyse its predicting value for disease activity evaluation despite normal C-Reactive protein (CRP) levels.
Methods: We included 80 patients with RA and 30 healthy subjects.
Background: High mobility group box- 1 (HMGB- 1) is a nuclear protein acting as a proinflammatory molecule. The serum HMGB- 1 levels were found elevated in chronic inflammatory diseases. In this cross-sectional study, serum HMGB- 1 levels in Behcet's disease (BD) patients and healthy controls (HC) were studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Behçet syndrome (BS) is a multisystemic chronic vasculitic disease. Among previous studies, although there are some that showed increased risk of subclinical atherosclerosis in BS, there are also others that showed the opposite. The objective of this study is to evaluate subclinical atherosclerosis in BS by using the cutoff value for intima-media thickness in the 2013 European Society of Cardiology/European Society of Hypertension guideline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To report the clinical characteristics of pulmonary artery involvement (PAI) in patients with Behçet's syndrome (BS) and to define the predictors of relapses.
Methods: We performed retrospective analysis of BS patients with PAI who fulfilled international study group criteria. Among 460 patients with vascular Behçet's syndrome (VBS), 66 were diagnosed with PAI.