Ultrasound of Nails: Why, How, When.

Nail disorders are frequently a challenge to diagnose correctly only based on clinical findings. Moreover, biopsies may leave scars due to damage to the nail matrix. Currently, high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) with probes >15 MHz is the first-choice imaging technique to study the nail.

Peritoneal Equilibration Test Reference Values Using a 3.86% Glucose Solution During the First Year of Peritoneal Dialysis: Results of a Multicenter Study of a Large Patient Population.

Background: The original peritoneal equilibration test (PET) was used to classify peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients using a 2.27% glucose solution. It has since been suggested that a 3.

[Peritoneal Dialysis in Italy: the fourth GSDP-SIN census 2012].

Objective: To know PD modalities and results in Italy.

Methods: The Census was carried out by means of an on-line questionnaire in all the 224 non-pediatric public centers which performed PD in 2012. The results were compared with those of previous Censuses.

Assessment of physical activity, capacity and nutritional status in elderly peritoneal dialysis patients.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of sedentarism, and to assess physical capacity and nutritional status in a cohort of older patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD), with respect to age-matched non-dialysis CKD population, using highly accessible, simple methods, namely the Rapid Assessment of Physical activity (RAPA) test and the 30″ Sit-to-stand (STS) test.

Methods: This cross-sectional multicenter study included 151 renal patients older than 60 years; 71 pts. (44 m, age 72 ± 7 yrs) were on PD and 80 pts.

[Nutritional and Functional assessment of peritoneal dialysis patients in the clinical practice: Report from MITO-DP Group].

Nutritional abnormalities and physical inactivity are risk factors of increased morbidity and mortality in patients with ESRD. Identify and define malnutrition, in particular protein-energy depletion (PEW), is an important task in the management of renal patients. The aim of this multicenter observational study was to implement the assessment of nutritional status and functional capacity in patients on peritoneal dialysis, including tests and validated methods which are relatively easy to apply in daily clinical practice.

A vitamin E-coated polysulfone membrane reduces serum levels of inflammatory markers and resistance to erythropoietin-stimulating agents in hemodialysis patients: results of a randomized cross-over multicenter trial.

Background: Oxidative stress is prevalent in dialysis patients and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and anemia. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that plays a central role in reducing lipid peroxidation and inhibiting the generation of reactive oxygen species. The aim of this cross-over randomized study was to compare the effects of a vitamin E-coated polysulfone (Vit E PS) membrane and a non-vitamin E-coated polysulfone (PS) membrane on inflammatory markers and resistance to erythropoietin-stimulating agents (ESAs).

Quantitative ultrasound in the assessment of skeletal status in uremic patients.

Renal osteodystrophy (ROD) can be characterized by both high (HT) and low (LT) bone turnover states. Although bone biopsy remains the "gold standard" to diagnose ROD, noninvasive tools for the diagnosis and follow-up of such bone disease are desirable. Recently, ultrasound (US) techniques, proposed to assess skeletal status, have been shown to be correlated not only with bone density but also with bone quality.

Uremia, dialysis and aluminium.

Few studies have dealt with assaying aluminium levels in different tissues of uremic patients; so far a comparison has never been made between its accumulation in the various tissues of uremic patients and controls. Aluminium levels were determined in the following biological samples: 1) 111 serum samples from hemodialysis patients and 55 serum samples from normal subjects; 2) 47 urine samples from the same dialysis patients and 45 from the controls; autopsy tissue specimens (blood, bile, brain, rib, cartilage, cranium, lung, spleen, kidney, aorta, vena cava, liver, muscle) from 12 deceased dialysis patients undergoing post-mortem diagnosis and 10 autopsy cases in which death was not associated with uremia. In living subjects, both serum and urinary levels of aluminium are significantly higher in hemodialysis patients than in controls; a significant positive correlation was found between serum and urinary levels of aluminium.

Mechanisms of acid-base homeostasis in acetate and bicarbonate dialysis, lactate hemofiltration and hemodiafiltration.

The different mechanisms of acidosis buffering were investigated in 15 RDT patients dialyzed in cross-over with four depurative techniques: acetate dialysis (AD), bicarbonate dialysis (BD), lactate hemofiltration (LHF) and hemodiafiltration (HDF) with acetate bath and lactate reinfusion fluid. Blood pH, bicarbonate, blood gases, intraerythrocytic pH - on red cell hemolisates - anion gap, L-lactate, pyruvate, adenosinmonophosphate (ADP) and 2-3 Diphosphoglycerate (2-3 DPG) levels were evaluated. During AD the intradialytic buffering is initially achieved by the CO2 fall and later by the acetate metabolism and an important bicarbonate shift from the intra to the extracellular space.

Effect of increasing doses of lisinopril on proteinuria of normotensive patients with IgA nephropathy and normal renal function.

The antiproteinuric effect of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition in patients with renal disease is well known, but the results of clinical studies appear to vary considerably from a partial decrease to a fall of 100% in urinary protein excretion. This may have been due to the use of different doses of ACE inhibitor, different renal pathology and non-standardized sodium intake. In 16 proteinuric patients with biopsy-proven IgA nephropathy, with normal renal function and blood pressure, maintained at controlled sodium intake < or = 80 mEqII, the efficacy of increasing doses of the ACE inhibitor lisinopril was studied.