Place of the F-FDG-PET/CT in the Diagnostic Workup in Patients with Classical Fever of Unknown Origin (FUO).

Objective: To explore the diagnostic contribution of the F-FDG-PET/CT in a population of patients with classical fever of unknown origin (FUO), to pinpoint its place in the diagnostic decision tree in a real-life setting, and to identify the factors associated with a diagnostic F-FDG-PET/CT.

Method: All adult patients (aged ≥ 18 years) with a diagnosis of classical FUO who underwent an F-FDG-PET/CT in the University Hospital of Montpellier (France) between April 2012 and December 2017 were included. True positive F-FDG-PET/CT, which evidenced a specific disease causing FUO, were considered to be contributive.

Confidence vanished or impaired until distrust in the doctor-patient relationship because of COVID-19: Confidence vanished or impaired until distrust: "COVID" in relationship.

Since Hippocrates, the cornerstone of medical practice has been the doctor-patient relationship. The question here is whether these basic principles are still compatible with this unusual COVID-period. This pandemic represents a serious threat to human health, leading to profound changes in behavior in daily life but also in health care.

Sodium excretion is higher in patients with rheumatoid arthritis than in matched controls.

Objective: It was shown that sodium can promote auto-immunity through the activation of the Th17 pathway. We aimed to compare sodium intake in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) vs. matched controls.

Abdominal Aortic Calcifications Influences the Systemic and Renal Hemodynamic Response to Renal Denervation in the DENERHTN (Renal Denervation for Hypertension) Trial.

Background: The DENERHTN (Renal Denervation for Hypertension) trial confirmed the efficacy of renal denervation (RDN) in lowering daytime ambulatory systolic blood pressure when added to standardized stepped-care antihypertensive treatment (SSAHT) for resistant hypertension at 6 months.

Methods And Results: This post hoc exploratory analysis assessed the impact of abdominal aortic calcifications (AAC) on the hemodynamic and renal response to RDN at 6 months. In total, 106 patients with resistant hypertension were randomly assigned to RDN plus SSAHT or to the same SSAHT alone (control group).

Twenty-Four-Hour Blood Pressure Monitoring to Predict and Assess Impact of Renal Denervation: The DENERHTN Study (Renal Denervation for Hypertension).

Unlabelled: The DENERHTN trial (Renal Denervation for Hypertension) confirmed the blood pressure (BP) lowering efficacy of renal denervation added to a standardized stepped-care antihypertensive treatment for resistant hypertension at 6 months. We report here the effect of denervation on 24-hour BP and its variability and look for parameters that predicted the BP response. Patients with resistant hypertension were randomly assigned to denervation plus stepped-care treatment or treatment alone (control).

Primary sclerosing cholangitis: a new cause of distal renal tubular acidosis.

We describe the first case of distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis. A 26-year-old Lao-Thai male patient presented with severe jaundice, metabolic acidosis and hypokalaemia. He was diagnosed of dRTA.

Retinal vascular caliber associated with cardiac and renal target organ damage in never-treated hypertensive patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between retinal vascular caliber and target organ damage in HT patients.

Methods: Data were collected on cardiac, renal, vascular, and retinal variables in 88 consecutive never-treated HT subjects. Retinal vascular calibers were measured from fundus photographs by using a semi-automated computer-assisted program and summarized as CRAE and CRVE.

MACVIA-LR (Fighting Chronic Diseases for Active and Healthy Ageing in Languedoc-Roussillon): A Success Story of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.

The Région Languedoc Roussillon is the umbrella organisation for an interconnected and integrated project on active and healthy ageing (AHA). It covers the 3 pillars of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA): (A) Prevention and health promotion, (B) Care and cure, (C) and (D) Active and independent living of elderly people. All sub-activities (poly-pharmacy, falls prevention initiative, prevention of frailty, chronic respiratory diseases, chronic diseases with multimorbidities, chronic infectious diseases, active and independent living and disability) have been included in MACVIA-LR which has a strong political commitment and involves all stakeholders (public, private, patients, policy makers) including CARSAT-LR and the Eurobiomed cluster.

Adherence to Antihypertensive Treatment and the Blood Pressure-Lowering Effects of Renal Denervation in the Renal Denervation for Hypertension (DENERHTN) Trial.

Background: The DENERHTN trial (Renal Denervation for Hypertension) confirmed the blood pressure-lowering efficacy of renal denervation added to a standardized stepped-care antihypertensive treatment for resistant hypertension at 6 months. We report the influence of adherence to antihypertensive treatment on blood pressure control.

Methods: One hundred six patients with hypertension resistant to 4 weeks of treatment with indapamide 1.

[Appropriate medication prescribing in older people].

Drug-induced adverse effects are one of the main avoidable causes of hospitalization in older people. Numerous lists of potentially inappropriate medications for older people have been published, as national and international guidelines for appropriate prescribing in numerous diseases and for different age categories. The present review describes the general rules for an appropriate prescribing in older people and summarizes, for the main conditions encountered in older people, medications that are too often under-prescribed, the precautions of use of the main drugs that induce adverse effects, and drugs for which the benefit to risk ratio is unfavourable in older people.

Markers of bone remodeling are associated with arterial stiffness in renal transplanted subjects.

Background: Bone-vessel interaction in chronic renal failure remains poorly understood and could be driven by bone remodeling factors including osteoprotegerin (OPG), fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), parathormone and vitamin D. Only few data are available in renal transplantation. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between bone remodeling factors and large artery function in renal transplant patients.

CT-pro-AVP as a tool for assessment of intravascular volume depletion in severe hyponatremia.

Background: Assessment of volume status is essential to best manage hyponatremic patients but is not always accurate in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of C-terminal portion of pro-arginine-vasopressin (CT-pro-AVP), a surrogate biomarker of vasopressin release, in assessing intravascular volume (IVV) depletion in hypoosmolar hyponatremic patients.

Methods: Plasma CT-pro-AVP and urea-to-creatinine ratio (Ur/Cr) were performed in 131 hospitalized patients presenting chronic severe hypoosmolar hyponatremia.

Arterial stiffness: an independent determinant of adaptive glomerular hyperfiltration after kidney donation.

After kidney donation, the remaining kidney tends to hyperfiltrate, thus limiting the initial loss of renal function. The potential determinants of this adaptive glomerular hyperfiltration (GHF) and specifically the influence of arterial function are poorly known. In 45 normotensive healthy kidney donors [51 ± 10 yr (mean ± SD), 39 females], glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was measured as the clearance of continuously infused (99m)Tc-DTPA and timed urine collections at baseline, i.

Evaluation of five immunoturbidimetric assays for urinary albumin quantification and their impact on albuminuria categorization.

Objectives: The study was designed to evaluate the performance of five automated immunoturbidimetric assays to quantify urinary albumin, each corresponding to a combination of a reagent and an analyzer (Olympus on AU640, Roche on Cobas Integra, Abbott on Architect, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Vitros on Fusion and Siemens on Dimension).

Design And Methods: To assess imprecision, albumin was measured in three urinary pools with a mean value of 25, 66 and 131 mg/L. One hundred and eight patient urine samples were then used to compare each turbidimetric method using the Passing-Bablok regression and Bland-Altman analyses.

Left ventricular mass changes after renal transplantation: influence of dietary sodium and change in serum uric acid.

Background: We hypothesized that dietary sodium may modulate the effect of systolic blood pressure and other nonhemodynamic factors, such as high uric acid and renal dysfunction, on changes in the left ventricular mass after renal transplantation. The objective of the present 3-year follow-up longitudinal study was to assess the concomitant influence of these factors on changes in the left ventricular mass after renal transplantation.

Methods: Twenty-four-hour urinary sodium excretion, glomerular filtration rate (isotopic clearance), and left ventricular mass (echocardiography) assessment were done in 165 renal transplant patients during the first year and after a follow-up of 3 years after renal transplantation.

Exogenous thyrotropin improves renal function in euthyroid patients, while serum creatinine levels are increased in hypothyroidism.

Background: There is evidence showing that the hypothyroid state results in increased serum creatinine levels. However, whether this is only due to the peripheral thyroid hormones or if thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) is also involved is not known.

Methods: Serum creatinine levels and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were assessed in thyroidectomized patients with varying thyroid hormones and TSH levels.

Effect of early stage kidney disease on cardiac mass: comparison to post-donation renal function.

Background/aim: In chronic renal failure the increase in cardiovascular risk is in part related to the high prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy. The aim of the present monocentric retrospective study was to evaluate the influence of the presence of parenchymal kidney disease on left ventricular geometry in normotensive (arterial pressure <140/90 mm Hg) patients (KD+, n = 50, mean age 39 ± 19 years) with mild to moderate renal failure (stage 2-3 chronic kidney disease).

Methods: Left ventricular geometry was estimated by echocardiography and compared to a group of healthy subjects with similarly reduced renal function as a consequence of renal donation (KD-, n = 63, mean age 52 ± 12 years).

Validation of a new standardized cystatin C turbidimetric assay: evaluation of the three novel CKD-EPI equations in hypertensive patients.

Objectives: Analytical and clinical performances of the new standardized cystatin C particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (PETIA) using DiaSys reagents on Olympus AU2700® analyzer were evaluated.

Design And Methods: We have studied imprecision, linearity, limit of detection and limit of quantification of this new immunoassay. Method comparison was assessed in relation to results generated by the standardized Siemens-particle-enhanced nephelometric immunoassay (PENIA).

Retinal vascular caliber is associated with renal function in apparently healthy subjects.

Purpose: To assess the relation between retinal vascular caliber and renal function.

Patients And Methods: Eighty apparently healthy subjects screened for cardiovascular risk factors (mean age 47 years, 51% female, 36% hypertensive, without diabetes or renal dysfunction) were recruited. Retinal vascular calibers were measured from fundus photographs and expressed as central retinal artery and venular equivalent.

Etanercept normalises left ventricular mass in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Cardiovascular mortality is increased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is associated with an increased left ventricular mass index (LVMI), a strong marker of cardiovascular mortality, and vessel abnormalities. Experimental studies have suggested that tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) may induce LV hypertrophy.

Treatment of hypertension with renin-angiotensin system inhibitors and renal dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: To determine whether inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) reduce the incidence of renal dysfunction when compared to other antihypertensive treatments in patients with essential hypertension and no pre-existent renal disease.

Methods: The search strategy used the Cochrane Library, Medline, previous meta-analyses, and journal reviews. The selection criteria included randomized, controlled trials of antihypertensive drugs that compared a RAS inhibitor with another treatment in essential hypertension.

Early detection of isolated left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in high-risk differentiated thyroid carcinoma patients on TSH-suppressive therapy.

Objective: L-Thyroxine-suppressive therapy benefits high-risk differentiated thyroid cancer patients by decreasing recurrence rates and cancer-related mortality. However, fully suppressed serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) implies a state of subclinical hyperthyroidism (SCH) with associated adverse cardiac effects. Because left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction may be the first manifestation of more severe LV failure, and to balance the risks from thyroid cancer recurrence with risks of cardiac failure, the purpose of this study was to analyse new parameters of LV function in asymptomatic patients with exogenous SCH.

Dietary sodium, aldosterone, and left ventricular mass changes during long-term inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system.

In essential hypertension, the regression of left ventricular hypertrophy is an important goal of treatment. In addition to treatment-associated changes in blood pressure (BP), the roles of other determinants of left ventricular hypertrophy regression, including dietary sodium intake, deserve investigation. In the present study, the change in echographic left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was assessed in 182 patients with never-treated essential hypertension at baseline and after 3 years of treatment by angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor antagonists given at recommended doses and associated with other antihypertensive agents.