Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: Renal biopsy is the mainstay of renal pathological diagnosis. Despite sophisticated diagnostic techniques, it is not always possible to make a precise pathological diagnosis. Our aim was to identify a genetic cause of disease in patients who had undergone renal biopsy and determine if genetic testing altered diagnosis or treatment. Meth...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: Choice of vascular access for older hemodialysis patients presents a special challenge since the rate of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) primary failure is high. The Lok’s risk equation predicting AVF primary failure has achieved good prediction accuracy and holds great potential for clinical use, but it has not been validated in the United...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: The evidence linking low serum sodium levels with the risk of mortality in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients is controversial. Considering the different mechanisms contributing to hyponatremia in these patients, it is conceivable that the prognostic significance of this factor may vary, according to the clinical setting. Methods: Follow...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: We evaluated the incremental contribution of chronic kidney disease (CKD) to the risk of major adverse cardiovascular (CV) events (MACE), heart failure (HF), and all-cause mortality (ACM) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients and its importance relative to the presence of other cardio-renal-metabolic (CaReMe) comorbidities. Method...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: Although many older patients with end-stage renal disease and limited prognoses prefer conservative management (CM), it is not widely offered in the United States. Moreover, there is a dearth of US-based literature reporting clinical experience with shared decision making regarding CM of advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: W...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: Successful parathyroidectomy (PTX) with stable postoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels is associated with the stabilization of coronary artery calcification score (CACS) in patients with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) undergoing hemodialysis. To use computed tomography (CT) to evaluate the influence of PTX on CACS in...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: Treatment of metabolic acidosis to target the higher serum bicarbonate level than guideline recommendation may downregulate muscle protein degradation and improve renal function among chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. We conducted a study to test the effects of increased serum bicarbonate level on muscle parameters, nutrition, and ...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients have significant symptom burden. Reduced provider awareness of symptoms contributes to underutilization of symptom management resources. Method: We hypothesized that improved nephrologist awareness of symptoms leads to symptom improvement. In this prospective, multicenter interventional study, 53 ...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: Inflammation plays an important role in polycystic kidney disease (PKD). Cordyceps sinensis, a prized Chinese medicinal herb, exerts anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and anti-metastatic effects and benefits patients with kidney diseases. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of FTY720, an immunosuppressant derived from C. sinensi...
Published in American Journal of Nephrology
Background: Selection of patients for assisted peritoneal dialysis (PD) is based on the nurse’s assessment of the patient. There is no data available about the nurse’s assessment of the PD patient at the initiation of PD to estimate the need for assisted PD at the national level. This study was carried out to evaluate the association between the nu...
