Anemia in patients undergoing ambulatory peritoneal dialysis: prevalence and associated factors.

Introduction: Anemia is a common complication in dialysis patients, scare studies have evaluated anemia in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD).

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of anemia and its associated factors in patients undergoing PD in a single center where patients have free access to agents stimulating erythropoiesis (ESA) and intravenous iron supplementation.

Methods: Cross-sectional study analyzing the demographic, clinical and laboratory variables of 120 patients.

A model for improving quality in nephrology settings.

Continuous quality improvement (CQI) programs have been instituted in many health care organizations over the last decade. PDCA, a tool composed of planning (P), doing (D), checking (C), and acting (A), has proved to be very useful in the CQI problem-solving process. The use of the PDCA tool described in this article resulted in the successful resolution of a hepatitis B outbreak in a Brazilian hemodialysis population and can serve as a model methodology for improving care in nephrology settings.