Prevalence of anemia according to stage of chronic kidney disease in a large screening cohort of Japanese.

Background: The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is high in developed countries, including Japan. However, little is known about the prevalence of anemia according to the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) among Japanese.

Methods: We studied screenees on the Okinawa General Health Maintenance Association (OGHMA) registry in 1993 (N = 94,602; 54,848 women and 39,754 men) who had both serum creatinine and hematocrit data.

Electromyographic activity of lower lip muscles when chewing with the lips in contact and apart.

Masticatory muscle activity is coordinated with perioral muscle during chewing. Subjects with competent lips usually chew with the lips in light contact, whereas subjects with incompetent lips possibly have dysfunctional chewing. In this study, the electromyographic (EMG) activities of the lower lip and masseter muscles were recorded when chewing with the lips in contact and apart.

Evidence for elevated pulse pressure in patients on chronic hemodialysis: a case-control study.

Background: Few analyses have compared pulse pressure (PP) values in hemodialysis patients with healthy individuals, and they have provided only limited data. We retrospectively examined PP in a large cohort of hemodialysis patients and healthy control subjects.

Methods: The relationships of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and PP to mean arterial pressure (MAP) levels were investigated in 234 chronic hemodialysis patients and in 682 control subjects matched for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, and body mass index.

Severe abdominal pain associated with allergic reaction to nafamostat mesilate in a chronic hemodialysis patient.

A 33-year-old woman was referred from an outside dialysis clinic to our hospital because of severe abdominal pain during hemodialysis. She had been on chronic hemodialysis for the past 11 years due to chronic glomerulonephritis. Nafamostat mesilate was used as an anticoagulant for hemodialysis, because it was during her menstrual period with hypermenorrhea.

Analysis of drug prescription in chronic haemodialysis patients.

Background: Information concerning medication use in Asian haemodialysis patients is sparse. We surveyed prescribed medications and examined the relation between the number of medications and mortality and clinical characteristics in chronic haemodialysis patients, in Okinawa, Japan.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional multicentre survey in August 1999 and patients were observed during 13 months of follow up.

End-stage renal disease associated with familial Mediterranean fever.

A 39-year-old man had been suffering from periodic fever since childhood. He was started on hemodialysis due to secondary amyloidosis on December 2000. The patient was believed to have Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) because of recurrent fever with peritonitis, arthritis and inflammatory changes and secondary amyloidosis in his kidneys, heart and colon.