Publications by authors named "Rıdvan Mercan"

In a previous study, it has been shown that the population of Th17 lymphocytes was increased in patients with FMF. IL-21 and IL-23 play significant roles in the production and differentiation of Th17 cells. In this study, we aimed to evaluate serum levels of IL-21 and IL-23 in FMF patients both at diagnosis and after treatment, and to compare these levels with those of healthy controls.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Moyamoya syndrome (MMS) is a rare, chronic, progressive cerebrovascular disorder characterized by stenosis at the apices of the intracranial internal carotid arteries, including the proximal anterior cerebral arteries and middle cerebral arteries. Cerebral angiography images are used for detection through measurement. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can cause multisystemic involvement.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The incidence of tuberculosis in developed countries has decreased over the years due to the use of effective tuberculosis drugs and improvements in socio-economic conditions. However, with the ease of global transport and increased travel to countries with high tuberculosis prevalence, the reduction in extrapulmonary tuberculosis cases has been less significant compared with the overall decrease in tuberculosis cases. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis can manifest in a variety of ways.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Salmonella is still observed as an infectious agent in developing countries, often causing gastrointestinal infections. Extra-gastrointestinal infections are rare and spinal infections are even rarer. This case report describes a patient with rheumatoid arthritis who is actively receiving biologic therapy, presented with dysphagia, recurrent fevers, back and arm pain, weight loss and weakness and was diagnosed with retropharyngeal and epidural Salmonella infection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study looked at how well a medication called tocilizumab (TCZ) works for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who didn't respond well to other treatments.
  • Researchers collected data from 258 patients using a special online registry in Turkey to track their health and any side effects.
  • TCZ showed good results, with over 80% of patients still using it after a year, and it helped reduce their disease symptoms safely.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Cardiovascular disease risk prediction in scleroderma is important. In this study of scleroderma patients, the aim was to investigate the relationship between cardiac myosin-binding protein-C, sensitive troponin T, and trimethylamine N-oxide and cardiovascular disease risk with the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation 2 model of the European Society of Cardiology.

Methods: Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation 2 risk groups of 38 healthy controls and 52 women with scleroderma were evaluated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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 PDF

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).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Exertional leg pain (ELP) and enthesitis are musculoskeletal findings in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). They are not accepted as principal treatment targets. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of treatments on ELP and enthesitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

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 PDF

We wanted to see how close we could get to our goal of treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) without the use of glucocorticoids (GCs) in the disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) era using real-life data. Established in 2017, the TReasure database is a web-based, prospective, observational cohort for Turkey. As of May 2019, there were 2,690 RA patients recorded as receiving biologic and targeted synthetic DMARDs (bDMARDs and tsDMARDs) therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Because of concerns about malignancy risks, using biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) in patients with a history of malignancy remains a challenging issue in rheumatology practice. This study aimed to investigate bDMARD preferences of physicians when treating of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA) patients with a history of malignancy.

Methods: The data for this cross-sectional study were gathered from the TReasure database using a date range of December 2017 and January 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Exertional leg pain (ELP) and enthesitis are musculoskeletal findings in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). They are not accepted as principal treatment targets. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of treatments on ELP and enthesitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Spondyloarthritis (SpA) encompasses a variety of diseases that can lead to conditions like acute anterior uveitis (AAU), which is a common complication; this study investigates the prevalence and contributing factors of AAU among Turkish SpA patients.
  • The research involved examining data from over 4,200 SpA patients, revealing that 11% had experienced at least one episode of uveitis, with higher occurrences linked to factors like older age, smoking, longer disease duration, and specific genetic markers.
  • The findings suggest that the presence of uveitis could be significant for diagnosing SpA, indicating a need for patients with uveitis to consult a rheumatologist for further assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: This study aims to determine the frequency and risk factors of bacteriuria and urinary tract infection (UTI) in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and their differences from healthy individuals and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Patients And Methods: The study included 107 female primary SS patients (mean age 50.7±11.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/aim: To evaluate treatment adherence and predictors of drug discontinuation among patients with inflammatory arthritis receiving bDMARDs within the first 100 days after the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials And Methods: A total of 1871 patients recorded in TReasure registry for whom advanced therapy was prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or spondyloarthritis (SpA) within the 3 months (6–9 months for rituximab) before the declaration of COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated, and 1394 (74.5%) responded to the phone survey.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/aim: To evaluate the effect of the long-term use of systemic immunosuppressive drugs on druse formation in patients aged over 50 years.

Materials And Methods: The current retrospective cohort study includes 420 eyes of 420 patients. 210 eyes of 210 patients who used immunosuppressive drugs (Group 1) at least for the last 5 years and 210 eyes of 210 control patients (Group 2) who did not use any drugs were compared.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Our aim is to understand clinical characteristics, real-life treatment strategies, outcomes of early PsA patients and determine the differences between the inception and established PsA cohorts.

Methods: PsArt-ID (Psoriatic Arthritis- International Database) is a multicentre registry. From that registry, patients with a diagnosis of PsA up to 6 months were classified as the inception cohort (n==388).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a disease that can cause inflammation and pain in the body, and some FMF patients also show signs of enthesitis, which is pain where tendons and ligaments attach to bones.
  • In a study with 238 FMF patients, researchers found that 54 of them (about 23%) had enthesitis and these patients also experienced more severe symptoms and more frequent attacks than those without it.
  • The study suggests that enthesitis might indicate a more serious form of FMF and is often linked to other related problems, like joint pain and fever.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To determine the real-life efficacy, safety, and drug-retention rates of leflunomide (LEF) or methotrexate (MTX) as a synthetic DMARD used in combination with biological DMARDs for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: The TReasure database is a web-based, prospective, observational cohort of RA and spondyloarthritis patients from 17 centres in different regions of Turkey and data entry was enabled since December 2017. Until May 2019, 2556 RA patients on biologic treatment were recorded.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF