Active Smoking is Associated with Lower Dialysis Adequacy in Prevalent Dialysis Patients.

Background: Dialysis adequacy measured by single pool Kt/V (spKt/V) lower than 1.2 or urea reduction rate (URR) lower than 65% is associated with a significant increase in patient mortality rate. Patients' adherence to the medical treatment is crucial to achieve recommended targets for spKt/V.

Quality of Life-Repeated Measurements Are Needed In Dialysis Patients.

Background: There is a general agreement that, besides survival, the quality of life is a highly relevant outcome in the evaluation of treatment in patients with the end-stage renal disease. Moreover, it is very important to determine whether the quality of life impacts survival.

Aim: This study aims to assess whether changes or absolute scores of the quality of life (QOL) measurements better predict mortality in dialysis patients.

Timing of nephrology referral and initiation of dialysis as predictors for survival in hemodialysis patients: 5-year follow-up analysis.

Background: A consensus about the optimal timing of dialysis initiation is still controversial. Thus, the goal of this analysis was to compare outcomes in patients with early and late referral with early and late initiation of hemodialysis (HD).

Methods: We studied 190 patients (mean age 52.