Uğurcan Eker

Dr. Uğurcan Eker

Medical Biochemistry, Etlik City Hospital, Ankara, Turkey (Türkiye)
orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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21 August 2025 in Diagnostics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Tuğba Sanalp MenekşeTuğba Sanalp Menekşe
Tuğba Sanalp Menekşe
İŞİlker Şirin
İlker Şirin
HGhandan günsay
handan günsay
UEUğurcan Eker
Uğurcan Eker
RKRasime Pelin Kavak
Rasime Pelin Kavak
CTCanan Topçuoğlu
Canan Topçuoğlu
Background/Objectives: This study investigated whether serum salusin-α and salusin-β levels could support the diagnosis and prognosis of confirmed acute pulmonary embolism (APE) cases. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted including 57 patients diagnosed with APE using computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and 30 control participants without any acute or chronic disease. APE patients were categorized based on the Pulmonary Artery Obstruction Index (PAOI) into low (≤20) and high (>20) thrombus burden groups. Serum salusin-α and salusin-β levels were measured at diagnosis using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Associations with PAOI and Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) scores were analyzed. Results: Salusin-α and salusin-β levels were markedly reduced in APE patients versus controls (p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, salusin-α remained independently associated with APE (p = 0.042), whereas salusin-β was not significant. A receiver operating characteristic analysis showed good diagnostic performance for salusin-α (AUC = 0.799; sensitivity = 89.5%; specificity = 46.7%). Neither peptide correlated with PAOI or PESI. At a 305.85 pg/mL cut-off, salusin-α yielded a positive predictive value of 76.1% and a negative predictive value of 70% in this cohort. Conclusions: The findings suggest that salusin-α has high sensitivity in detecting acute pulmonary embolism and may serve as a supportive diagnostic marker in emergency settings. Although its specificity is limited, it could contribute to guiding additional testing. While salusin-β showed no significant diagnostic value, the potential role of salusin peptides in prognostic evaluation requires further exploration.

27 December 2025 in Journal of Medicine and Palliative Care
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
MBMine Büşra Bozkürk
Mine Büşra Bozkürk
HGHayat Güven
Hayat Güven
BGBülent Güven
Bülent Güven
FEFatma Avşar Ertürk
Fatma Avşar Ertürk
UEUğurcan Eker
Uğurcan Eker
AOAlpaslan Ozturk
Alpaslan Ozturk
Aims: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive, heterogeneous, neuroinflammatory, and neurodegenerative disease, and predicting both short- and long-term prognoses is challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic and phenotypic value of serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) levels in patients with MS and to examine the relationship between these levels and clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: The study included 86 age- and sex-matched MS patients and 86 healthy controls. Serum samples were analyzed using a commercial ELISA kit to measure the sNfL levels. Routine biochemistry and complete blood count results were recorded. Logistic regression, correlation analyses, ROC curves, and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were used to assess the diagnostic accuracy and phenotypic discrimination of all data. Results: sNfL levels were significantly higher in patients with MS than in healthy controls (median 21.2 vs. 4.21 ng/L; p