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Therapeutic apheresis is an extracorporeal treatment that selectively removes abnormal cells or harmful substances in the blood that are associated with or cause certain diseases. During the last decades the application of therapeutic apheresis has expanded to a broad spectrum of hematological and non-hematological diseases due to various studies on the clinical efficacy of this procedure. In this context there are more than 30 centers performing therapeutic apheresis and registered in the apheresis database in Turkey. Herein, we, The Turkish Apheresis Registry, aimed to analyze some key articles published so far from Turkey regarding the use of apheresis for various indications., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest None., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare disease presenting with variable and various clinical findings. PNH might be overlooked and diagnosis may be delayed due to low awareness about PNH. This is the first multicenter study in Turkey, investigating the efficiency of diagnostic screening of PNH by multiparameter flow cytometry (FCM) according to consensus guidelines., Methods: We evaluate the efficiency of consensus clinical indications for PNH testing with FCM in 1689peripheral blood samples from 20 centers between January 2014 and December 2017., Results: Overall, at the 20 centers contributing to this study, PNH clone were detected in 62/1689 samples (3.6%) by FCM test. 75.8% (n = 47) of patients with PNH clone had aplastic anemia, 3.2% (n = 2) had Coombs (-) hemolytic anemia, 6.5% (n = 4) had unexplained cytopenia, 3.2% (n = 2) had MDS with refractory anemia, 1.6% (n = 1) had hemoglobinuria and 9.7% (n = 6) had others (elevated LDH, splenomegaly, etc.). In contrast, we detect no PNH clone test in patients who were screened for unexplained thrombosis., Conclusions: Our study showed that current clinical indications for PNH testing are highly efficient and diagnostic screening of suspected patients for PNH with FCM is recommended. However, advanced screening algorithms are required for patients presenting with unexplained thrombosis and normal complete blood count., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is used to treat more than 60 diseases worldwide and has drawn growing interest. Little is known about the current situation of TPE activity in Turkey, so we developed a survey to obtain information about this timely topic. We collected data on TPE from 28 apheresis units throughout Turkey. We performed a total of 24,912 TPE procedures with 3203 patients over the past decade. Twenty years ago, the majority of procedures were performed for neurological and hematological disorders, and today, most TPE procedures are done for the same reasons. The only historical change has been an increase in TPE procedures in renal conditions. Currently, renal conditions were more frequently an indication for TPE than rheumatic conditions. Fresh frozen plasma was the most frequently used replacement fluid, followed by 5% albumin, used in 57.9% and 34.6% of procedures, respectively. The most frequently used anticoagulants in TPE were ACD-A and heparin/ACD-A, used with 1671 (52.2%) and 1164 (36.4%) patients, respectively. The frequency of adverse events (AEs) was 12.6%. The most common AEs were hypocalcemia-related symptoms, hypotension, and urticaria. We encountered no severe AEs that led to severe morbidity and mortality. Overall, more than two thirds of the patients showed improvement in the underlying disease. Here, we report on a nationwide survey on TPE activity in Turkey. We conclude that there has been a great increase in apheresis science, and the number of TPE procedures conducted in Turkey has increased steadily over time. Finally, we would like to point out that our past experiences and published international guidelines were the most important tools in gaining expertise regarding TPE., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The PTPN22 C1858T gene polymorphism has been recently reported to be associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in European and North American ancestry. In contrast, the frequency of PTPN22 C1858T polymorphism is extremely rare in Asian and African populations. As the genetic heterogeneity between populations is clearly present in RA, we wanted to investigate whether the PTPN22 C1858T polymorphism is associated with RA in Turkey and with autoantibody positivity. A total of 323 RA patients and 426 healthy controls were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism for the PTPN22 C1858T polymorphism (rs2476601). The frequencies of heterozygote genotype (CT) were 8.4% in RA patients and 5.4% in the healthy controls, respectively [odds ratio (OR): 1.6, P = 0.14]. The homozygote genotype (T/T) was absent in both RA patients and the healthy controls. When compared with the healthy controls, we found the significant associations between the frequency of PTPN22 heterozygote (CT) polymorphism and RA patients with RF positivity and anti-CCP positivity, respectively (OR: 2.05, P = 0.04 and OR: 2.1, P = 0.03, respectively). Our study suggests that the PTPN22 C1858T polymorphism acts as a susceptibility gene for autoantibody-positive RA in Turkey., (© 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.)