Criteria sets for primary Sjogren's syndrome are not adequate for those presenting with extraglandular organ involvements as their dominant clinical features.

Patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) may go undiagnosed or be misclassified due to the insidious nature and wide spectrum of the disease. The available several classification criteria emphasize glandular findings. We aimed to analyze the efficiency of various classification criteria sets in patients diagnosed on the clinical basis by expert opinion and to compare those pSS patients who fulfilled these criteria with those who did not.

Identification of Susceptibility Loci in IL6, RPS9/LILRB3, and an Intergenic Locus on Chromosome 21q22 in Takayasu Arteritis in a Genome-Wide Association Study.

Objective: Takayasu arteritis is a rare large vessel vasculitis with incompletely understood etiology. This study was undertaken to perform the first unbiased genome-wide association analysis of Takayasu arteritis.

Methods: Two independent cohorts of patients with Takayasu arteritis from Turkey and North America were included in our study.

Salivary and serum B-cell activating factor (BAFF) levels after hydroxychloroquine treatment in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

Purpose: Some evidence implicates a role of hydroxychloroquine (HQ) in the management of Sjögren's syndrome. This study evaluated the effect of HQ on saliva B-cell activating factor (BAFF) levels as well as health related quality of life (QoL) in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS).

Materials And Methods: Ten pSS patients who had been treated with HQ for at least 2 years and 15 healthy controls (HC) were included in the study.

Identification of multiple genetic susceptibility loci in Takayasu arteritis.

Takayasu arteritis is a rare inflammatory disease of large arteries. The etiology of Takayasu arteritis remains poorly understood, but genetic contribution to the disease pathogenesis is supported by the genetic association with HLA-B*52. We genotyped ~200,000 genetic variants in two ethnically divergent Takayasu arteritis cohorts from Turkey and North America by using a custom-designed genotyping platform (Immunochip).

Takayasu's arteritis is associated with HLA-B*52, but not with HLA-B*51, in Turkey.

Introduction: HLA-B*51 and HLA-B*52 are two close human leukocyte antigen (HLA) allele groups with minor amino acid differences. However, they are associated with two different vasculitides (HLA-B*51 in Behçet's disease and HLA-B*52 in Takayasu's arteritis (TAK)) and with major clinical and immunological differences. In this study, we aimed to screen a large cohort of TAK patients from Turkey for the presence of HLA-B*51 and HLA-B*52 as susceptibility and severity factors.

PDCD1 polymorphisms are not associated with Takayasu's arteritis in Turkey.

Objectives: Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is a chronic arterial inflammation of unknown etiology involving mainly the aorta and its major branches. Based on the associations of programmed death-1 (PD-1) protein encoding gene (PDCD1) with connective tissue diseases and vasculitides, PDCD1 polymorphisms are studied for susceptibility to TA in this study.

Methods: The study group is made up of TA patients (n=229) fulfilling the 1990 ACR classification criteria and compared to 193 healthy controls (HC).

TRAF1/C5, eNOS, C1q, but not STAT4 and PTPN22 gene polymorphisms are associated with genetic susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus in Turkey.

A significant source of variability in the literature on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility genes has been the inability to replicate genetic findings across different racial or ethnic groups. We investigated whether a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the STAT4 (rs7574865), PTPN22 (rs2476601), TRAF1/C5 (rs10818488), and C1q (rs292001) genes as well as the 27-bp VNTR polymorphism on intron 4 of eNOS, previously associated with SLE in other populations, are also associated with SLE risk in Turkey. A group of 158 SLE patients and 155 healthy controls were included in this study.

Tear osmolarity measurements in dry eye related to primary Sjögren's syndrome.

Background: To evaluate the tear osmolarity in patients with dry eye syndrome related to primary Sjögren's Syndrome (SS).

Materials And Methods: Twenty eyes of 10 patients with dry eye and primary SS (Group 1) and 20 eyes of 20 subjects who do not have dry eye syndrome (Group 2) were included in this cross-sectional study. In all eyes, ophthalmic examination was performed in the same order: International Ocular Surface Disease Index survey, visual acuity assessment, conjunctival hyperemia scoring, tear osmolarity measurement with TearLab(™) Osmolarity System, tear film break-up time assessment, corneal fluorescein staining scoring, ocular surface Lissamine Green staining scoring, anesthetized Schirmer test.

Induced sputum as a method for detection of systemic sclerosis-related interstitial lung disease.

Inducted sputum (IS) is a non-invasive procedure that can be used for collection of airway secretions. The aim of our study is to evaluate the clinical usefulness of IS for detection of airway inflammation in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Bronchoalveolar lavage and IS were performed to 20 patients with SSc.

Assessment of disease activity and progression in Takayasu's arteritis with Disease Extent Index-Takayasu.

Objective: Disease Extent Index-Takayasu (DEI.Tak) is a new index developed for the follow-up of Takayasu's arteritis (TA), assessing only clinical findings without the requirement of imaging. We investigated the effectiveness of DEI.

Hydroxychloroquine improves dry eye symptoms of patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome.

The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on subjective and objective parameters of dry eye in patients with primary Sjogren's disease and to evaluate the association of tear fluid B-cell activating factor (BAFF) level with the response. Thirty-two patients with primary Sjogren's disease were enrolled in this prospective study. All patients included in the study completed at least a 48-month run-in period of using hydroxychloroquine.

Comparative performance analysis of 4 different anti-citrullinated protein assays in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic performances of 2 recently developed assays, third-generation anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP3) and anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV), in comparison to conventional second-generation anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP2) assay; and to assess a novel fully automated, random-access AxSYM anti-CCP assay for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: A cohort of 176 patients was enrolled in our study; 93 were diagnosed as having RA. The non-RA group consisted of 83 patients including 38 with systemic lupus erythematosus, 17 with primary Sjögren's syndrome, 11 with osteoarthritis, and 17 healthy controls.

Mannose binding lectin levels in spondyloarthropathies.

Objective: Mannose binding lectin (MBL), a member of the collectin family proteins, is a major molecule of the innate immune system; MBL deficiency is associated with increased susceptibility to infections. As gastrointestinal and genitourinary infections are suggested to be among the etiological factors of spondyloarthropathies (SpA), we investigated MBL deficiency in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and undifferentiated SpA (uSpA).

Methods: One hundred seven patients with AS, 43 patients with uSpA, and 74 healthy controls were studied.

Comparative analysis of autoantibodies against a-fodrin in serum, tear fluid, and saliva from patients with Sjögren's syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate levels of IgA and IgG antibodies against a-fodrin in serum, tear fluid, and saliva and compare them with anti-Ro and anti-La antibody levels in the same samples of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS).

Methods: Samples from 25 patients with SS (17 primary and 8 secondary), 8 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and 7 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as well as 20 healthy blood donor controls were collected. Antibodies were measured using ELISA.