Structured hypertension education program for people with type 2 diabetes, the SHED study.

Objectives: There is enough evidence that patient education and lifestyle modification has shown benefits in diabetes care, however the evidence is less for improving care of hypertension. Our study is the first in the UK to assess the impact of a structured hypertension education program in subjects with type 2 diabetes.

Design: Prospective randomised controlled study.

Prospective Audit to Study urokinaSe use to restore Patency in Occluded centRal venous caTheters in haematology and oncology patients (PASSPORT 2).

Background: Central venous catheter dysfunction may be associated with intraluminal clots, drug precipitates and lipid residues or extra luminal causes such as fibroblastic sleeve, tip malposition, pinch-off syndrome and venous thrombosis at the tip of central venous catheter. Failure to restore patency after addressing these causes, empirical treatment with thrombolytic agents should be considered. Urokinase is used widely as a thrombolytic agent but very few outcome studies have been published.

Managing Access by Generating Improvements in Cannulation: A national quality improvement project.

Cannulation is essential for haemodialysis with arteriovenous access, but also damages the arteriovenous access making it prone to failure, is associated with complications and affects patients' experiences of haemodialysis. Managing Access by Generating Improvements in Cannulation is a national UK quality improvement project, designed to improve cannulation practice in the United Kingdom, ensuring it reflects current needling recommendations. It uses a simple quality improvement method, the Model for Improvement, to structure improvement to cannulation practice.

Prospective Audit to Study urokinaSe use to restore Patency in Occluded centRal venous caTheters (PASSPORT 1).

Objectives: Tunnelled central venous catheters dysfunction can be defined as failure to provide blood flow above 200 mL/min during dialysis often caused by thrombosis. Although urokinase is used routinely for thrombolysis, there is wide variation in dose regimens. A multidisciplinary group was formed to address this issue and offer guidance.

Bioelectrical impedance can be used to predict muscle mass and hence improve estimation of glomerular filtration rate in non-diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease.

Background: In this article (the second of two companion studies), we report whether bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) can be used to predict muscle mass in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and whether using this predicted muscle mass can improve the estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR).

Methods: Seventy five non-diabetic patients with CKD (mean age +/- SD, 65.1 +/- 12.

The relationship between estimated glomerular filtration rate, demographic and anthropometric variables is mediated by muscle mass in non-diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease.

Background: In this study (the first of two related papers), we report whether the relationship between the demographic and anthropometric variables (DA, i.e. age, gender, height and weight) employed in current creatinin (Cr)-based glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimation equations and actual GFR is mediated by muscle mass.