Publications by authors named "Ariella Mermelstein"

Article Synopsis
  • Hyperphosphatemia is common in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients and can lead to poor health outcomes; researchers explored whether weekly creatinine clearance (CrCl) is a better indicator of serum phosphate levels compared to urea clearance.
  • A study analyzed data from 16,796 PD patients across several institutions in North and South America, adjusting for various factors like age and gender, to determine the relationship between serum phosphate levels and both CrCl and urea Kt/V.
  • The findings indicated that while CrCl did not outperform urea Kt/V in predicting serum phosphate levels, incorporating CrCl into predictive models improved their overall accuracy, suggesting its importance in managing phosphate levels in PD patients.
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Key Points: We conducted a randomized controlled pilot trial in patients on hemodialysis using a physiology-based individualized anemia therapy assistance software. Patients in the group receiving erythropoiesis-stimulating agent dose recommendations from the novel software showed improvement in hemoglobin stability and erythropoiesis-stimulating agent utilization.

Background: Anemia is common among patients on hemodialysis.

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Background: We hypothesized that the association of ultrafiltration rate with mortality in hemodialysis patients was differentially affected by weight and sex and sought to derive a sex- and weight-indexed ultrafiltration rate measure that captures the differential effects of these parameters on the association of ultrafiltration rate with mortality.

Methods: Data were analyzed from the US Fresenius Kidney Care (FKC) database for 1 year after patient entry into a FKC dialysis unit (baseline) and over 2 years of follow-up for patients receiving thrice-weekly in-center hemodialysis. To investigate the joint effect of baseline-year ultrafiltration rate and postdialysis weight on survival, we fit Cox proportional hazards models using bivariate tensor product spline functions and constructed contour plots of weight-specific mortality hazard ratios over the entire range of ultrafiltration rate values and postdialysis weights (W).

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For the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis, several drug classes with different mechanisms of action are available. Since only a limited set of dosing regimens and drug combinations can be tested in clinical trials, it is currently unclear whether common medication strategies achieve optimal bone mineral density gains or are outperformed by alternative dosing schemes and combination therapies that have not been explored so far. Here, we develop a mathematical framework of drug interventions for postmenopausal osteoporosis that unifies fundamental mechanisms of bone remodeling and the mechanisms of action of four drug classes: bisphosphonates, parathyroid hormone analogs, sclerostin inhibitors, and receptor activator of NF-κB ligand inhibitors.

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Introduction: One proposed threshold ultrafiltration rate (UFR) of concern in hemodialysis patients is 13 ml/h per kg. We evaluated associations among UFR, postdialysis weight, and mortality to determine whether exceeding such a threshold would result in similar levels of risk for patients of different body weights.

Methods: Data were analyzed in this retrospective cohort study for 1 year following dialysis initiation (baseline) and over 2 years of follow-up in incident patients receiving thrice-weekly in-center hemodialysis.

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