Ertugrul Erken

• Professor (Associate) at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University

Objective: Cognitive impairment increases the risk of mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease. Progressive cognitive decline can be a serious issue for hemodialysis (HD) patients even if they are young with few comorbid conditions. The aim of this prospective study is to evaluate HD patients using Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and...

Objective: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized by an irreversible decrease in kidney functions and accumulation of uremic toxins in the body. Platelet indices have the potential to predict the inflammatory status and disease progression in patients with CKD. In this study it was aimed to investigate platelet indices and their relations wi...

Objective Uremic pruritus is a distressing complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD), associated with mortality, and negatively impacts quality of life. The 5D-Itch Scale (5D-IS) is an easy-to-apply technique that evaluates 5 different dimensions of itching such as duration, severity, course, disability, and prevalence. We aimed to investigate t...

Objectives Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a condition characterized by atherosclerosis, cognitive impairment, physical limitations, biochemical abnormalities, and vascular aging. The proportion of those with a diagnosis of CKD in the older is increasing. With comprehensive geriatric assessment, it could be possible to detect the disorders that are...

Amaç: Böbrek biyopsisi, renal parankimal hastalıkların tanısal değerlendirmesinde altın standarttır. Bir nefrolog ya da girişimsel radyolog tarafından ultrasonografi eşliğinde perkütan olarak uygulanmaktadır. Bu çalışmamızda böbrek biyopsi yapılan hastaların demografik özellikleri, biyopsi endikasyonları, biyopsi sonrası gelişen komplikasyonları, b...

During the follow-up of patients with renal failure, many medications may be required due to the clinical condition and comorbidities. Care should be taken in terms of the nephrotoxic effect of these drugs used or the accumulation of renally excreted drugs in the body and causing toxic effects. One of the most important side effects of carbapenems...

Hemolitik üremik sendrom (HÜS), mikroanjiyopatik hemolitik anemi, trombositopeni ve akut böbrek yetmezliği ile karakterize olan ciddi bir hastalıktır. Hızlı tanı konulup uygun tedavi başlanmadığı takdirde ölümcül seyredebilir. Etyolojide enfeksiyöz ajanlar sıklıkla suçlanmaktadır. Genellikle verositotoksin (Shiga benzeri toksin) üreten mikroorganiz...

Background In this study, we evaluated 3-month clinical outcomes of kidney transplant recipients (KTR) recovering from COVID-19 and compared them with a control group. Method The primary endpoint was death in the third month. Secondary endpoints were ongoing respiratory symptoms, need for home oxygen therapy, rehospitalization for any reason, lowe...

Background The inhibition and activation cycles of the NK cells are mainly regulated by killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs). In this study, we examined KIR genes/genotypes in kidney transplant recipients and healthy subjects. We aimed to determine if there are relations between certain KIR genes and allograft kidney function. Methods...

Introduction The main cause of death in hemodialysis patients is cardiovascular diseases. Increased arterial stiffness is a predictor of cardiovascular events for hemodialysis patients. Among the nondialysis patient population, arterial stiffness increases in those with hepatic fibrosis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. This study aims to exami...

Background and Aims There is increasing evidence about the alloreactivity of natural killer (NK) cells after kidney transplantation. The inhibition and activation cycles of the NK cells are mainly regulated by killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) which may have extensive allelic polymorphisms within the population. In this study, we exa...

Kardiyak aritmilere bağlı ani ölüm, kronik hemodiyaliz (HD) hastaları için önemli bir mortalite nedenidir. Çalışmamızda HD hastalarında, aritmi riski ile ilişkili olabilecek elektrokardiyogram (EKG) repolarizasyon parametrelerinin (QT, düzeltilmiş QT (QTc), T peak-end (Tp-e), Tp-e/QT ve Tp-e/QTc) klinik özellikler ile olası ilişkilerini araştırdık....

Özet Gebelerde patolojik olmayan miktarda proteinüri (300 mg/gün’ün altında) ve ödem görülebilmektedir. Patolojik ödem ve proteinürinin en sık nedeni ise preeklampsidir. Mirror sendromu gebelikte çok nadir görülen ancak potansiyel olarak önemli bir patolojidir. Genellikle beraberinde hidrops fetalis mevcuttur. Burada yaygın ödem ve proteinüri neden...

It has been demonstrated that NT‐proBNP and macrophage inhibitor cytokine‐1 (MIC‐1/GDF‐15) are associated with cognitive functions in patients without renal disease. In the present study, we examined the association of these two molecules with cognitive functions in hemodialysis patients for the first time in the literature. A total of 94 patients...

Background Hematological parameters like red cell distribution width (RDW) and mean platelet volume (MPV) were reported to be associated with inflammation, atherosclerosis, and chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. In this study, we evaluated RDW and MPV along with clinical features in patients with advanced CKD. We also aimed to detect clues f...

Background: Glomerular filtration surface area and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are increased in patients with diabetic nephropathy, especially in the early phase of the disease. Glomerular neoangiogenesis contributes to this increased GFR. Increased GFR is associated with glomerular neoangiogenesis. Vasohibin-1 is an inhibitor of neoangiogenes...

Background: Glomerular filtration surface area and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are increased in patients with diabetic nephropathy. Glomerular neoangiogenesis contributes to this increased GFR. Vasohibin-1 is an inhibitor of neoangiogenesis. The aim of this study is to evaluate serum vasohibin-1 levels of diabetic patients with and without dia...

Background Endothelial dysfunction (ED) is associated with high cardiovascular disease burden in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Vasohibin‐1, an endothelium‐derived angiogenesis inhibitor, is essential for endothelial cell survival, therefore it may be a promising marker of ED. We aimed to investigate whether vasohibin‐1 levels are associated with ED m...

Erectile dysfunction is a common problem which is seen among hypertensive patients. It is thought that medications used in treatment of hypertension may contribute this problem as well. Contrary to common belief, new generation drugs doesn’t produce adverse effect on erectile function. Phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors can be used safely in treatment...

Objectives: Sclerostin, a peptide secreted primarily by osteocytes, suppresses osteoblast maturation, thus reducing bone formation. Here, we evaluated the relationship between sclerostin levels and osteoporosis in kidney transplant recipients. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study included 78 kidney transplantrecipients > 18 years ol...

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is common among hemodialysis (HD) patients and is associated with poor treatment compliance and mortality. The aim of this study is to evaluate relatively young HD patients with less comorbidities using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and identify clues for earlier detection of cognitive impairment with the...

Purpose Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an inflammatory process. In addition to increased morbidity and mortality, inflammation also contributes to the progression of CKD. Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a marker of inflammation. Some recent data suggest that NLR may predict the progression of CKD. Methods In this study, 5-year data of 740 pa...

Purpose Renal infarction is a clinical condition which is caused by renal artery occlusion and leads to permanent renal parenchymal damage. In the literature, there are generally case reports on this subject, and few studies that include a large group of patients. Therefore, we aimed to present the data of a large group of patients who were diagnos...

BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: Cardiovascular calcification is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Vascular and valvular calcification are indicators of increased tissue calcification. The relationship of osteopontin (OPN) - which is known as a vascular calcification inhibitor - and fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-2...

OBJECTIVE: In our study, we aimed to evaluate the history and awareness of hepatitis in HD patients with viral hepatitis who were followed up at our center and in different provinces. MATERIAL and METHODS: A total of 260 HD patients with chronic viral hepatitis from 6 different provinces were included in the study. A total of 27 multiple-choice que...

Giriş: Derin doku kültüründe Acinetobacter baumannii ve Achromobacter species üremesi nedeni ile kolistin tedavisi verilen ve tedavinin erken döneminde nörotoksisite ve nefrotoksisite gelişen bir olgunun sunulması amaçlanmıştır. Olgu: Yetmiş üç yaşında erkek hasta, sekiz ay önce araç dışı trafik kazası sonrası sol tibia parçalı kırığı nedeniyle ope...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autoinflammatory disease manifested by inflammatory attacks of peritonitis, pleuritis, pericarditis accompanied by fever and arthritis. Mutations of MEFV gene results in pyrin dysfunction, which causes uncontrolled interleukin-1 beta production and triggers the inflammatory attacks. Inflammation persists eve...

Purpose: Hemoglobin variability is a common problem among hemodialysis patients. We have previously demonstrated an association between Hb variability and left ventricular mass index. In this study, we investigated a possible relation between Hb variability and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). Methods: Twelve-month hemoglobin (Hb) values o...

Background and Objectives Systemic inflammation has an important role in the initiation of atherosclerosis, which is associated with arterial stiffness (AS). Aortic flow propagation velocity (APV) is a new echocardiographic parameter of aortic stiffness. The relationship between systemic inflammation and AS has not yet been described in patients wi...

Background: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a chronic, recurrent auto-inflammatory disease characterised by self-terminating attacks of fever and sterile polyserositis. The main cause of death in auto-inflammatory diseases is cardiovascular events. Additionally, auto-inflammatory diseases have potential effects on the myocardial repolarisati...

Objective Increased inflammation, associated with the increase in chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage, has a very important influence in vascular injury and cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we aimed to investigate the levels of IL-33 and ST2 in the different stages of CKD and to determine their effect on vascular damage and cardiovascular eve...

OBJECTIVE: Oxidative stress has been found to be associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) and its complications. Exhaled breath condansate (EBC) is a method based on air cooling and condensation. This study aims to investigate a possible association between oxidative markers (8-isoprostane, Nitric Oxide (NO), Leukotriene E4 (LTE4)) in exhaled breath...

Renal infarction is a rare cause of bilateral loin pain. The most common etiologic reason is thromboembolism due to atrial fibrillation. Abuse of drugs such as ecstasy is a very rare cause of renal infarction. Here, we present a case diagnosed with bilateral renal infarction due to ecstasy usage after excluding other reasons.

Acute kidney injury related to ethiologies such as dehydration, drug toxicities, urate nephropathy and many others is a big concern for patients with maligant diseases. Apart from that, these patients may also develop some renal pathologies which could be defined as glomerular paraneoplastic syndromes associated with malignant diseases. Most common...

Background: It is well known that arterial stiffness is associated with hypertension. Recent studies have shown that adiponectin +276 G/T, ACE I/D, AGTR1 A1166C, and eNOS E298D polymorphisms are likely to be risk factors for arterial stiffness. In this study, we aimed to investigate possible associations between these single-nucleotide polymorphis...

Background: Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have increased risk of falls and fall-related complications. Other than aging and factors related to chronic kidney disease, treatment of hemodialysis may also contribute to this increased risk. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the impairment of balance after a session of hemodialysi...

Introduction: Drug induced gingival hyperplasia is the overgrowth of gingival ephitelium and submucosa which may cause bleeding and loss of teeth. Certain anticonvulsing, immunosuppressive and antihypertensive drugs are the underlying cause in most cases. Among them, cases due to amlodipine are very rare. Here we discuss the topic along with a case...

Purpose To evaluate cisterna chyli (CC) diameter with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Materials and Methods The study included 71 patients with CKD and 68 healthy controls. In both groups, the largest transverse diameter of CC was measured in axial heavily T2‐weighted images using a 1.5T MRI. The dia...

Aims: In this study, Doppler parameters were studied in patients with advanced stage renal disease, and the relationship between Doppler parameters and renal disease stage was investigated. Doppler values were evaluated for a cutoff value between normal and end-stage kidney disease group. Materials and methods: 50 patients with chronic kidney disea...

Background Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive autoinflammatory disease predominantly affecting Mediterranean populations. The gene associated with FMF is the MEFV gene, which encodes for a protein called pyrin. Mutations of pyrin lead to uncontrolled attacks of inflammation, and subclinical inflammation continues during at...

OBJECTIVE: Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) takes part in innate immunity through opsonisation and complement activation. Deficiency of MBL is associated with some infections and autoimmune disorders. This study focused on functional MBL deficiency and its effects on dialysis-related peritonitis and catheter-related bacteremia in patients with end stag...

Serum levels of Phosphate (P), Calcium (Ca) and Parathyroid hormone (PTH) show circadian rhythms in healthy people. The aim of this study is to investigate whether there is also a rhythm in Hemodialysis (HD) patients. We studied 15 (11 M, 4 F) HD patients, ages were 26 - 70 (mean 53 +/- 15) years. Two of the patients had history of parathyroidectom...

Objective: Urinary neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) is among novel markers assessed for early diagnosis of acute kidney injury. The effect of gadolinium-based contrast media on urinary NGAL concentrations has not been studied before. The aim of our study was to compare the effect of iodinated contrast agents and gadolinium-based co...

Visceral leishmaniasis is a rare opportunistic infection in renal transplantation patients and its presentation may be associated with or masked by many other factors in immunosuppressed patients. So, if it is not searched for in particular, diagnosis may be easily overlooked or delayed in renal transplant patients. A 32-year-old renal transplant r...

Contrast agents are associated with a number of adverse effects, including central nervous system effects. These agents are primarily filtered and excreted by the kidney. Contrast-associated encephalopathy is a rare complication. We report the case of a 55-year-old male on chronic hemodialysis who developed confusion and agitation after receiving i...

In this study we aimed to investigate IVS3 +17T/C single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of CD28 gene, +49A/G and -318C/T SNPs of CTLA-4 gene in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) and their potential association to the main clinical features of the disease. These polymorphisms were investigated in a Turkish population of 123 patients with BD and 179...

Pulmonary mucormycosis is caused by infection with an opportunistic fungus of the order Mucorales and is an acute, rapidly developing, and often-fulminant process usually occurring in immunocompromised individuals and rarely in immunocompetent people. We describe here pulmonary mucormycosis in a patient treated with colchicine for prophylaxis of th...