Treatment Results of Patients With Lupus Nephritis: A Single Center’s Experience

Objective: Lupus nephritis (LN) is a type of organ involvement of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) that leads to disease-related morbidity and mortality. Lack of good treatments for LN continues to be problematic. Many different treatment protocols are applied in treatment centers. Not every treatment protocol is successful. Moreover, patients who reached remission may present with exacerbations. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the treatment results of our patients and investigate their remission rates as well as factors that affect remissions.Materials and Methods: We retrospectively investigated the results of 41 patients who were diagnosed with lupus nephritis after kidney biopsy in the Nephrology and Immunology-Rheumatology departments of Atatürk University Medical Faculty Training Hospital between January 2000 and December 2008. Demographic information, clinical history and laboratory results were collected from each patient’s records. The relationships among clinical, laboratory, demographic parameters and remissions were investigated. The patients were grouped in terms of urine protein levels; patients with urine protein 0.05). We compared class 3 LN patients at the 6th and 12th months according to treatment protocols. Azathioprin or mycophenolate mophetil were significantly better at placing urine protein levels in remission as compared to cyclophosphamide (p<0.05).Conclusion: According to our study, no relationship was found between basal clinical and laboratory parameters and patient remission. Response rates of our LN patients were similar to those in the literature. However, complete remission is still a problem in LN. The results of the protocols used in the treatment of LN show similarities. Although there are some data suggesting that MMF used in recent years is effective, it should be supported by prospective multicenter studies. It is important to note that it is difficult to achieve complete remission in LN patients

Effect of surgical staging on 539 patients with borderline ovarian tumors: A Turkish Gynecologic Oncology Group study

WOS: 000327923400010PubMed ID: 24016409Objective. The objectives of this study were to examine demographic and clinicopathologic characteristics and to determine the effects of primary surgery, surgical staging and the extensiveness of staging. Methods. In a retrospective Turkish multicenter study, 539 patients, from 14 institutions, with borderline ovarian tumors were investigated. Some of the demographic, clinical and surgical characteristics of the cases were evaluated. The effects of type of surgery, surgical staging; complete or incomplete staging on survival rates were calculated by using Kaplan-Meier method. Results. The median age at diagnosis was 40 years (range 15-84) and 71.1% of patients were premenopausal. The most common histologic types were serous and mucinous. Majority of the staged cases were in Stage IA (735%). 242 patients underwent conservative surgery. Recurrence rates were significantly higher in conservative surgery group (8.3% vs. 3%). Of all patients in this study, 294 (545%) have undergone surgical staging procedures. Of the patients who underwent surgical staging, 228 (77.6%) had comprehensive staging including lymphadenectomy. Appendectomy was performed on 204 (37.8%) of the patients. The median follow-up time was 36 months (range 1-120 months). Five-year survival rate was 100% and median survival time was 120 months. Surgical staging, lymph node sampling or dissection and appendectomy didn't cause any difference on survival. Conclusion. Comprehensive surgical staging, lymph node sampling or dissection and appendectomy are not beneficial in borderline ovarian tumors surgical management. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved