Functional changes in the heart after sacubitril/valsartan use in 5 hemodialysis patients with hypertension. Case report.

The purpose of this report is to describe the efficacy of sacubitril/valsartan in 5 hemodialysis patients with hypertension, including a patient with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and a patient with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) focused on the functional changes in the heart. We switched from angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) to sacubitril/valsartan and compared blood pressure post dialysis, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) levels and the findings of echocardiography for a period of 6 months. A month after the initiation of sacubitril/valsartan, there was improvement of symptoms and blood pressure post-dialysis, the NT-pro-BNP levels decreased from 23,132.

Associations of body fat and its changes over time with quality of life and prospective mortality in hemodialysis patients.

Background: In maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, a larger body size is associated with better survival but a worse self-reported quality of life (QoL). It is not clear whether muscle mass or body fat confers the survival advantage.

Objective: We hypothesized that both a low baseline body fat percentage and a loss of fat over time were independently associated with higher mortality but with a better QoL score.

An anti-inflammatory and antioxidant nutritional supplement for hypoalbuminemic hemodialysis patients: a pilot/feasibility study.

Background: A low serum albumin concentration < 3.8 g/dL, a marker of malnutrition-inflammation complex syndrome, is observed in approximately half of all maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients in the United States and is strongly associated with increased mortality.

Objectives: We hypothesized that a novel oral nutritional intervention with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties taken during routine dialysis sessions is well tolerated and corrects hypoalbuminemia in MHD patients.

Revisiting mortality predictability of serum albumin in the dialysis population: time dependency, longitudinal changes and population-attributable fraction.

Background: Hypoalbuminaemia is a marker of malnutrition-inflammation complex syndrome (MICS) and a strong predictor of cardiovascular (CV) death in maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) patients. However, serum albumin may change over time. Hence, its time-varying associations with outcome may be different.

Reverse epidemiology: a spurious hypothesis or a hardcore reality?

In maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, associations between demographic, clinical and laboratory values and mortality, including cardiovascular death, are significantly different and, in some cases, in the opposite direction of those derived from the general population. This phenomenon, termed 'reverse epidemiology', is not limited to MHD patients but is also observed in populations that encompass an estimated 20 million Americans including those with an advanced age, heart failure, malignancies, and AIDS. A significant portion of this reversal may be due to the overwhelming effect of the malnutrition-inflammation complex syndrome (MICS).

[Sarcoidosis and hypercalcemia in a patient undergoing hemodialysis].

We report sarcoidosis-related hypercalcemia in a patient undergoing hemodialysis, The patient, a 54-year-old woman, had been undergoing maintenance hemodialysis since 1989. The cause of end-stage renal disease was membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. The patient was admitted to our hospital in January 2002 for the treatment of hypercalcemia(13.