Depression as a predictor of mortality and hospitalization among hemodialysis patients in the United States and Europe.

Background: Depression is not uncommon among patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) being treated by hemodialysis. We investigated whether risk of mortality and rate of hospitalization may be predicted from physician-diagnosed depression and patients' self-reports of depressive symptoms.

Methods: Data were analyzed from the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS) for randomly selected ESRD patients being treated by hemodialysis in the United States (142 facilities, 2855 patients) and five European countries (101 facilities, 2401 patients).

Objective estimates of the probability of developing hypothyroidism following radioactive iodine treatment of thyrotoxicosis.

Objective: Several risk factors have been shown individually to influence the outcome following radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy in the treatment of hyperthyroidism. However, no attempt has been made to determine their independent prognostic values that could be used in a regression model to provide objective estimates of the probability of developing hypothyroidism.

Study Design And Methods: We audited records of all hyperthyroid patients treated with first dose RAI between 1980 and 1996.

Hemodialysis vascular access preferences and outcomes in the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS).

Background: Synthetic grafts have generally been found to exhibit lower survival rates and higher complication rates than native arteriovenous fistulae. We investigated whether survival of grafts relative to fistulae was better in facilities with a preference for grafts, hypothesizing that such facilities may place more grafts because grafts produced superior outcomes.

Methods: The study was based on a national U.

Biological basis of hearing-aid design.

We show that we can accurately model the auditory-nerve discharge patterns in response to sounds as complex as speech and ask how we may exploit this knowledge to test new strategies for hearing-aid signal processing. We describe the auditory-nerve representations of vowels in normal and noise-damaged ears. The normal representations are predicted well by a cochlear signal processing model originally developed by Carney (Carney, L.

An open-label, crossover study of a new phosphate-binding agent in haemodialysis patients: ferric citrate.

Background: Hyperphosphataemia contributes to secondary hyperparathyroidism and renal osteodystrophy in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Calcium salts are widely employed to bind dietary phosphate (P) but they may promote positive net calcium balance and metastatic calcification. We recently reported that ferric compounds bind intestinal phosphate in studies of normal and azotemic rats.

Vascular access use in Europe and the United States: results from the DOPPS.

Background: A direct broad-based comparison of vascular access use and survival in Europe (EUR) and the United States (US) has not been performed previously. Case series reports suggest that vascular access practices differ substantially in the US and EUR. We report on a representative study (DOPPS) which has used the same data collection protocol for> 6400 hemodialysis (HD) patients to compare vascular access use at 145 US dialysis units and 101 units in five EUR countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom).

Relationship Between Apple Fruit Epicuticular Wax and Growth of Peltaster fructicola and Leptodontidium elatius, Two Fungi that Cause Sooty Blotch Disease.

Sooty blotch severity varied among apple cultivars or selections surveyed in 1989 and 1992. No mycelial growth was observed on russetted areas of the cuticle that are considered impermeable. Ursolic acid and n-alkanes were the most prominent components of the epicuticular waxes of the cultivars or selections evaluated.

Predictors of loss of residual renal function among new dialysis patients.

Residual renal function (RRF) in end-stage renal disease is clinically important as it contributes to adequacy of dialysis, quality of life, and mortality. This study was conducted to determine the predictors of RRF loss in a national random sample of patients initiating hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The study controlled for baseline variables and included major predictors.