Improving Access and Quality of Care for Kidney Stone Patients in an Underserved Community.

There is a call to improve Medicaid patient access to health care, enhance quality and outcomes of care, and reduce overall financial burden. We sought to build a comprehensive kidney stone program to help patients navigate through the acute and preventive aspects of stone disease by increasing multidisciplinary referrals and compliance with recommendations and decreasing no-show rates at first follow-up and repeat stone encounters after initial evaluation. A collaborative multidisciplinary program was established at our single institution consisting of urology, nephrology, and dietary specialists to be piloted over a 3-year period.

Limited Reliability of the Spot Urine Protein/Creatinine Ratio in the Longitudinal Evaluation of Patients With Lupus Nephritis.

Introduction: Cross-sectional studies document that the spot protein/creatinine ratio (PCR) is often an inaccurate estimate of proteinuria magnitude compared with the 24-hour PCR, which is the gold standard. However, the extent to which the inaccuracy of the spot PCR varies over time and between individuals has not previously been reported. We address these crucial questions using a unique database, an National Institutes of Health trial in which lupus nephritis (LN) patients (N = 103) provided spot PCR testing each month and 24-hour PCR testing every 3 months for up to 15 months after induction therapy.

Ceftolozane/Tazobactam Pharmacokinetics in a Critically Ill Adult Receiving Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy.

Limited data are available on ceftolozane/tazobactam dosing in patients receiving continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). Thus we performed a pharmacokinetic analysis of intravenous ceftolozane/tazobactam in a critically ill patient receiving CRRT at our medical center. A 47-year-old critically ill man with multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia, bacteremia, and osteomyelitis was receiving ceftolozane/tazobactam 3 g (ceftolozane 2 g/tazobactam 1 g) every 8 hours while receiving continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF).

Kidney complications of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) exposes a patient's kidneys to a unique combination of challenges, including high-dose radiation, anemia, chemotherapeutic agents, graft-versus-host disease, opportunistic infections, attenuated and altered immunologic responses, fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and extensive courses of antimicrobial agents. Since the inception of HSCT in the 1950s, there has been increasing interest in defining, determining, and managing the kidney complications that accompany this procedure. In this article, we review the common causes of acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease that occur with HSCT, including HSCT-associated thrombotic microangiopathy, a distinct cause of chronic kidney disease with a multifactorial cause previously known as bone marrow transplant nephropathy or radiation nephropathy.

Hemodialysis access monitoring and surveillance, how and why?

Hemodialysis access is the 'life line' for patients on renal replacement therapy. Vascular access failure and complications are the second leading cause for hospitalization of patients on hemodialysis. The concept of access monitoring is based on the basic tenet that identification of patients at risk of developing future access failure, coupled with elective intervention will decrease the incidence of hemodialysis access failure and improve patient outcomes.

Bath salts: a newly recognized cause of acute kidney injury.

Bath salts are substance of abuse that are becoming more common and are difficult to recognize due to negative toxicology screening. Acute kidney injury due to bath salt use has not previously been described. We present the case of a previously healthy male who developed acute kidney injury and dialysis dependence after bath salt ingestion and insufflation.

Diagnostic utility of kidney biopsy in patients with sarcoidosis and acute kidney injury.

Background: Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic multisystem disease characterized by noncaseating granulomatous inflammation. Renal biopsy is often performed to evaluate the patient with sarcoidosis and acute kidney injury (AKI). Diagnosis rests on the demonstration of noncaseating granulomas and exclusion of other causes of granulomatous inflammation.

Peramivir pharmacokinetics in two critically ill adults with 2009 H1N1 influenza A concurrently receiving continuous renal replacement therapy.

Study Objective: To determine the pharmacokinetics of intravenous peramivir-an investigational neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of 2009 H1N1 infection or nonsubtypable influenza A thought to be the 2009 H1N1 virus-in patients concurrently receiving continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT).

Design: Pharmacokinetic analysis.

Setting: Critical care unit at a university-affiliated hospital.

Random spot urine protein/creatinine ratio is unreliable for estimating 24-hour proteinuria in individual systemic lupus erythematosus nephritis patients.

Background: Recently the American Rheumatologic Association (ARA) recommended random spot urine protein/creatinine ratio (P/C) to monitor systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) glomerulonephritis (GN). Shortly afterward, 2 works were published, designated Study 1 and Study 2, which are the only studies to test spot P/C in SLE GN. Here we evaluate Study 1 and Study 2, which came to different conclusions.

Relationship between albuminuria and total proteinuria in systemic lupus erythematosus nephritis: diagnostic and therapeutic implications.

Background And Objectives: Albuminuria is regarded a sensitive measure of progression of glomerular disease. This study was undertaken in patients who had systemic lupus erythematosus glomerulonephritis (n = 57) and were followed in the Ohio SLE Study to determine whether measuring albuminuria offered clinical advantages over that of total proteinuria.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: Twenty-four-hour urine collections (n = 127) were obtained at baseline and annually for measurement of microalbumin, total protein, and creatinine.

Staphylococcus infection-associated glomerulonephritis mimicking IgA nephropathy.

The association of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection with glomerulonephritis (GN) has been well documented in Japan but not in North America. Recently, eight renal biopsies with IgA-predominant or -codominant GN from eight patients with underlying staphylococcal infection, but without endocarditis, were observed at a single institution in a 12-mo period. Renal biopsies were worked up by routinely used methodologies.

Should the target for blood pressure control specify both a systolic and a diastolic component?

The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) Report recommends, as the target for hypertension control, achieving both a systolic and diastolic goal. We suggest, however, that specifying both a systolic and a diastolic component for the blood pressure goal can be confusing to physician and patient. Furthermore, literal interpretation and application of this JNC 7 recommendation could result in overtreatment, undertreatment, or institution of treatment for hypertension when none is needed.

Clinical risk factors associated with bleeding after native kidney biopsy.

Purpose: To determine the effect of various risk factors on postbiopsy bleeding (PBB).

Procedure: A retrospective review of 645 native kidney biopsies carried out from 1981 to 2001 was conducted. Data regarding age, gender, race, prebiopsy blood pressure, history of hypertension, pre- and postbiopsy haemoglobin/haematocrit, serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were collected.

Colon biopsies for evaluation of acute graft-versus-host disease (A-GVHD) in allogeneic bone marrow transplant patients.

Background: Proper histomorphological interpretation of intestinal acute graft versus host disease (A-GVHD) associated with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is critical for clinical management. However, studies methodically evaluating different histomorphological features of A-GVHD are rare.

Methods: Colonic biopsies from 44 allogeneic BMT patients having biopsy-proven cutaneous A-GVHD were compared with colon biopsies from 48 negative controls.