Chronic kidney disease stages 3-5 and cardiovascular disease in the veterans affairs population.

Aim: Cardiovascular complications are common in patients with chronic kidney disease in the general population. The study aims to investigate the prevalence and prognosis of CKD stages 3-5 in the veterans affairs (VA) population, which is sicker with more co-morbid conditions.

Methods: In this case-controlled study of 6,432 men the associations of risk factors with CKD and its risk of mortality were estimated using, primarily, logistic regression analysis.

A case of Weber-Christian disease with collapsing glomerulopathy.

We report a case of Weber-Christian disease confirmed by skin biopsy in a patient who presented with collapsing glomerulopathy and lipophagic interstitial nephritis. On renal biopsy, glomerular visceral epithelial cells, tubular cells, and interstitial macrophages were loaded with inclusions that were morphologically consistent with oxidized lipoproteins, suggesting that lipids derived from the panniculitis may have an etiopathogenic role.

Maintenance therapies for proliferative lupus nephritis: mycophenolate mofetil, azathioprine and intravenous cyclophosphamide.

For the treatment of proliferative lupus nephritis, long-term cyclophosphamide (CY) regimens are efficacious, however, at the expense of substantial toxicity. In the last decade, sequential regimens of short-term CY induction followed by either mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) or azathioprine (AZA) maintenance have shown to be efficacious and safe reducing the long-term exposure to CY. In a maintenance study including predominantly Hispanics and African-Americans, the patients who received MMF and AZA maintenance had a higher cumulative probability of remaining free of the composite of death or chronic renal failure (CRF) compared to quarterly intravenous CY (IVCY) maintenance (89% in MMF, 80%, in AZA and 45% in IVCY).

Ethanol promotes T cell apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway.

Clinical reports suggest that acute ethanol intoxication is often associated with lymphopenia. Previously, ethanol was reported to invoke thymocyte apoptosis. We studied the effect of ethanol on T cell apoptosis.