Background And Objectives: This open, prospective, randomized trial aimed to assess the effects of statins in chronic kidney disease patients on optimized antiproteinuric treatment with combined angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition and angiotensin receptor blockade.
Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: After 1-month benazepril therapy followed by 1-month benazepril-valsartan combined therapy (run-in), 186 consenting patients with residual proteinuria >0.5 g/24 h were randomized to 6-month benazepril-valsartan therapy alone or combined with fluvastatin.
Background And Methods: The endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOs) asymmetrical dimethyl-arginine (ADMA) has been implicated as a possible modulator of inducible NOs during acute inflammation. We examined the evolution in the plasma concentration of ADMA measured at the clinical outset of acute inflammation and after its resolution in a series of 17 patients with acute bacterial infections.
Results: During the acute phase of inflammation/infection, patients displayed very high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), procalcitonin and nitrotyrosine.
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of traditional risk factors including hypertension, abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterol and fasting hyperglycemia. This syndrome is a noxious condition not only for the cardiovascular (CV) system but also for the kidney. In a recent analysis of the NHANES III study the prevalence rate of chronic kidney disease (CKD) was very low in patients without risk factors, but reached 9% in those with five risk factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom an evolutionary perspective, Darwinian selection has favored insulin-resistant individuals, ie, those with a trait ensuring brain functioning in situations of extreme fuel deprivation. The ability to mount a powerful inflammatory response to infection was another survival advantage in our ancestors, and we now have solid evidence showing that these 2 traits, insulin resistance and inflammation (as measured by serum C-reactive protein [CRP]), are associated in modern human beings. In an analysis of 192 nondiabetic hemodialysis patients, leptin and adiponectin were related in an opposite fashion with insulin sensitivity in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and interacted in determining insulin resistance in these patients.
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