Publications by authors named "Margaret McGrath-Chong"

Background: Differences in immunogenicity between mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have not been well characterized in patients undergoing dialysis. We compared the serologic response in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna).

Methods: We conducted a prospective observational cohort study at 2 academic centres in Toronto, Canada, from Feb.

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The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) resulting in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is documented to have a negative psychosocial impact on patients. Home dialysis patients may be at risk of additional isolating factors affecting their mental health. The aim of this study is to describe levels of anxiety and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic among home dialysis patients.

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Introduction: The provision of sufficient support contributes to home hemodialysis (HHD) technique survival. The need for back-up treatment in incident and prevalent patients on HHD has not been well described previously, and is important from both technique survival and resource allocation. We aimed to quantify the amount of back-up treatment given to patients in our HHD unit, and hypothesized that the provision of back-up HD facilitated technique survival.

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Article Synopsis
  • Home dialysis, including home haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD), has increased in use, but its technical complexity leads to challenges in wider adoption, particularly concerning adverse events.
  • A study involving 118 adult home dialysis patients assessed how different learning styles, using VARK questionnaires, were linked to the occurrence of adverse events within 6 months of training.
  • The results indicated that non-visual learners were significantly more likely to experience adverse events, with adjusted odds showing they were about four times more at risk compared to visual learners, especially notable in home HD patients.
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Introduction: Venous needle dislodgement (or venous port disconnection) during hemodialysis (HD) may lead to catastrophic blood loss, particularly during unsupervised home HD. A prototype venous line clamp was developed for use in conjunction with the Redsense blood loss sensor. We hypothesize that this prototype device will provide additional safety to dialysis without excessive burden.

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Inflammation is implicated in the pathogenesis of erythropoietin (EPO) resistance in patients with end-stage renal disease. Interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha are suggested to suppress erythropoiesis in uremia. Insulin like growth factor (IGF)-1 has been proposed to stimulate erythropoiesis.

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