Browsing by Author "Demirtas, Levent"

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Alveolar Echinococcosis of the Liver: a Single Center Experience
(Medycyna Praktyczna Sp K Sp Zoo, 2012) Dulger, Ahmet C.; Esen, Ramazan; Begenik, Huseyin; Aytemiz, Enver; Demirtas, Levent; Aslan, Mehmet
INTRODUCTION In humans, alveolar echinococcosis (AE) of the liver is caused by canine tapeworm called Echinococcus multilocularis. The disease is most prevalent in the northern hemisphere and in the eastern part of Turkey. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to review the natural history of AE and its clinical and radiological features. PATIENTS AND METHODS The retrospective study involved 23 patients (10 men, 13 women), aged 34-75 years with AE who had been referred to our liver disease clinic in the past 4 years. Only patients with pathologically proven AE were included in the study. The sociodemographic, clinical, and radiological features of AE were also evaluated. RESULTS The main laboratory characteristics of AE included mild eosinophilic leukocytosis with hyper-gammaglobulinemia, elevated C-reactive protein levels, near-normal liver transaminases, and increased levels of cholestatic enzymes and immunoglobulin E. Eight patients (35%) had hepatitis B e antigen-negative hepatitis B infection. Budd-Chiari syndrome was identified in 3 of 23 patients (13%). Eighty-three percent of the patients had a seropositive test result for AE, and approximately one-third of the patients had distant metastasis. Surgical treatment was administered in 4 patients. Four patients died due to complications during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Patients with AE have numerous complications and advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. The clinical picture of AE comprises a number of hepatic and extrahepatic disturbances related both to destructive and mass effects of the tapeworm.
A Flare of Ulcerative Colitis Accompanied With Cerebral Sinus Venous Thrombosis and Bilateral Thalamic Infarctus: A Case Report
(Elmer Press inc, 2012) Dulger, Ahmet Cumhur; Begenik, Huseyin; Demirtas, Levent; Esen, Ramazan; Emre, Habib
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory and recurrent disorder that is characterized by bowel inflammation. Some patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) have acute, severe, and sometimes devastating intracranial complications that require immediate medical intervention. Cerebral sinus vein thrombosis is a rare but serious extraintestinal complication associated with ulcerative colitis. Herein we report a 30-year-old man with UC who presented with a flare of gastrointestinal symptoms with mental obtundation and apathy. Total colonoscopy revealed active colitis and cranial MRI showed extensive cerebral sinus venous thrombosis with thalamic infarcts. Because the patient was clinically unstable metilprednisolon with low molecular weight heparin were administered. Two days after treatment the patient was died despite all medical efforts.
The Prevalence of Fabry Disease in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease in Turkey: The Turkfab Study
(Karger, 2016) Turkmen, Kultigin; Guclu, Aydin; Sahin, Garip; Kocyigit, Ismail; Demirtas, Levent; Erdur, Fatih Mehmet; Ortiz, Alberto
Background/Aims: Fabry disease is a treatable cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) characterized by a genetic deficiency of a-galactosidase A. European Renal Best Practice (ERBP) recommends screening for Fabry disease in CKD patients. However, this is based on expert opinion and there are no reports of the prevalence of Fabry disease in stage 1-5 CKD. Hence, we investigated the prevalence of Fabry disease in CKD patients not receiving renal replacement therapy. Methods: This prospective study assessed a-galactosidase activity in dried blood spots in 313 stage 1-5 CKD patients, 167 males, between ages of 18-70 years whose etiology of CKD was unknown and were not receiving renal replacement therapy. The diagnosis was confirmed by GLA gene mutation analysis. Results: Three (all males) of 313 CKD patients (0.95%) were diagnosed of Fabry disease, for a prevalence in males of 1.80%. Family screening identified 8 aditional Fabry patients with CKD. Of a total of 11 Fabry patients, 7 were male and started enzyme replacement therapy and 4 were female. The most frequent manifestations in male patients were fatigue (100%), tinnitus, vertigo, acroparesthesia, hypohidrosis, cornea verticillata and angiokeratoma (all 85%), heat intolerance (71%), and abdominal pain (57%). The most frequent manifestations in female patients were fatigue and cornea verticillata (50%), and tinnitus, vertigo and angiokeratoma (25%). Three patients had severe episodic abdominal pain attacks and proteinuria, and were misdiagnosed as familial Mediterranean fever. Conclusions: The prevalence of Fa bry disease in selected CKD patients is in the range found among renal replacement therapy patients, but the disease is diagnosed at an earlier, treatable stage. These data support the ERBP recommendation to screen for Fabry disease in patients with CKD of unknown origin. (C) 2016 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel