Association of globalization with the burden of opioid use disorders 2019. A country-level analysis using targeted maximum likelihood estimation.

Background: The "opioid crisis" has been responsible for hundreds of thousands deaths in the US, and is at risk of dissemination worldwide. Within-country studies have demonstrated that the rise of opioid use disorders (OUD) is linked to increased access to opioid prescriptions and to so-called "diseases of despair". Both have been related to the emergence of globalization policies since the 1980s.

Monthly access flow monitoring with increased prophylactic angioplasty did not improve fistula patency.

Background: Regular access monitoring is recommended to detect and treat access stenosis in order to prevent access thrombosis and failure.

Methods: In 1999, we instituted monthly access blood flow monitoring using the ultrasound dilution technique (UDT). In a sequential observational trial, 222 patients were studied for the impact of UDT monitoring on patency of their first arteriovenous autogenous fistula.