Browsing by Author "Karaca, Sibel"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

If Neurologists Establish The Diagnosis of Primary Sjogren's Syndrome?
(2014) Karaca, Sibel; Bozkirli, Emine Duygu Ersozlu; Goksel, Basak Karakurum; Tam, Meliha; Yucel, Ahmet Eftal
Introduction: Neurological involvements were shown in 20% of patients with Primary Sjogren's Syndrome (pSS). Neurological symptoms may be the first signs of pSS in 57% of the cases. In addition, early diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders may save or improve the quality of life of these cases. There have been reports about the neurologic manifestations of pSS but little is known about the details of neurologically presented cases. Method: In this study, we described 11 pSS patients who presented with neurological manifestations. Results: Central nervous system (CNS) involvement was recorded in 7 (63.7%) and peripheric nervous system (PNS) involvement in 4 cases (36.4%). Conclusion: Our findings regarding the cases with neurological manifestations leading to the diagnosis of pSS suggest that 1) The frequency of CNS involvement was higher than that of PNS, and the most frequent clinical pictures of CNS involvement are Multiple Sclerosis (MS)-like illnesses and optic neuritis, 2) Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) was the most frequent disease of PNS involvement; 3) Mononeuropathy multiplex (MM) might be the first sign of pSS; 41 Neurologists should consider pSS in the differential diagnosis of cases with MS, optic neuritis, GBS and neuropathies of unknown causes including MM; 51 There is an urgent need of therapeutical guidelines for the cases with neurological involvement associated with pSS.
Therapeutic Plasma Exchange in Neurologic Diseases: An Experience with 91 Patients in Seven Years
(2014) Karaca, Sibel; Kozanoglu, Ilknur; Karakurum Goksel, Basak; Karatas, Mehmet; Tan, Meliha; Yerdelen, V. Deniz; Giray, Semih; Artier, Zulfikar
Introduction: In this study, we report the results of our experience of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) for neuroimmunologic disorders performed at our hospital over a seven-year period. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 91 patients (53 male, 38 female) who had been treated at our center with TPE. Results: 60 patients with Guillain-BarrS syndrome (GBS), 23 with myasthenia gravis (MG), 4 with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) and 1 patient each with polymyositis, septic encephalopathy, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and Opsoclonus-Myoclonus syndrome (OMS) received TPE. 26.7% of GBS patient's made complete recovery, 61.7% had partial recovery and 11.7% patients died due to respiratory failure. Despite our best efforts and effective TPE treatments, 13.4% of MG patients deceased, however, 78% had full recovery. Three patients with CIDP were discharged with full and 1 patient with partial recovery. The patient with ADEM had partial recovery with TPE at first, but deceased 2 months later due to pneumonia-related respiratory insufficiency. While, patient with polymyositis had slight-partial recovery, we obtained full recovery with TPE in septic encephalopathy and OMS patients. The side effects and complications of treatments with TPE, which included hypotension, hypocalcaemia and anemia, were mild and manageable. Conclusion: The improvement rates were encouraging and we concluded that significant benefit can be achieved with TPE for the treatment of neuroimmunological disorders.