The Clinical Utility of Genetic Testing in the Diagnosis and Management of Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease.

Significance Statement: Accurate diagnosis of a patient's underlying cause of CKD can influence management and ultimately overall health. The single-arm, interventional, prospective Renasight Clinical Application, Review, and Evaluation study assessed the utility of genetic testing with a 385 gene kidney disease panel on the diagnosis and management of 1623 patients with CKD. Among 20.

Analysis of Native Kidney Function Recovery With Renal Scintigraphy Following Simultaneous Liver-Kidney Transplantation.

Background: Patients undergoing simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation (SLK) have impaired native kidney function. The relative contribution of allograft versus native function after SLK is unknown. We sought to characterize the return of native kidney function following SLK.

Self-reported marijuana use and its effects on overall approval in potential living kidney donors.

Background: Past and present substance use is an important part of the psychosocial evaluation of potential living kidney donors (LKDs). Increasing state legalizations and social acceptance of marijuana (MJ) use can create challenges for transplant centers.

Methods: We investigated the frequency of reporting MJ use, and its effect on the LKD evaluation.

Telemedicine as an ethics teaching tool for medical students within the nephrology curriculum.

A novel patient-centered approach was used to deliver ethics curriculum to medical students. Two medical school clinicians designed a telemedicine session linking their facilities (across 2 continents). The session, Exploring the Patient Experience Through Telemedicine: Dialysis and End-Stage Renal Disease, allowed second-year medical students to explore various parameters of quality of life experienced by dialysis patients.

Hospitalizations following living donor nephrectomy in the United States.

Background And Objectives: Living donors represented 43% of United States kidney donors in 2012. Although research suggests minimal long-term consequences of donation, few comprehensive longitudinal studies for this population have been performed. The primary aims of this study were to examine the incidence, risk factors, and causes of rehospitalization following donation.

Comorbidity burden and perioperative complications for living kidney donors in the United States.

Background And Objectives: Since 1998, 35% of kidney transplants in the United States have been derived from living donors. Research suggests minimal long-term health consequences after donation, but comprehensive studies are limited. The primary objective was to evaluate trends in comorbidity burden and complications among living donors.

Demographic and clinical characteristics associated with glomerular filtration rates in living kidney donors.

Due to the shortage of organs, living donor acceptance criteria are becoming less stringent. An accurate determination of the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is critical in the evaluation of living kidney donors and a value exceeding 80 ml/min per 1.73 m(2) is usually considered suitable.

Evaluation of creatinine-based estimates of glomerular filtration rate in a large cohort of living kidney donors.

Background: Accurate determination of kidney function is critical in the evaluation of living kidney donors and higher donor glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is associated with better allograft outcomes. However, among transplant centers donor kidney function evaluation varies widely.

Methods: The performance of creatinine clearance (CrCl), Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD), the re-expressed MDRD equations with standardized creatinine, and the Cockcroft-Gault (CG) formula as compared with (125)I-iothalamate GFR (iGFR) was analyzed in 423 donors.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis and its association with gadolinium exposure during MRI.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) is a newly recognized systemic disorder characterized by widespread tissue fibrosis in patients with impaired renal function. Recent reports suggest that NSF is associated with exposure to gadolinium-based contrast agents used in magnetic resonance imaging. NSF can be very debilitating and can lead to serious complications and death.

Influence of vascular access type on outcome measures in patients on maintenance hemodialysis.

Background: Previous studies postulate that end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients dialyzed with central venous catheters (CVC) have poorer outcomes compared to patients using arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) or arteriovenous grafts (AVG). Clinical practice guidelines should obviate these differences if access was not important. This study compared clinical measures of adequacy, anemia, and nutrition/inflammation in prevalent hemodialysis patients in 2003 by access type.

Renal failure secondary to acute tubular necrosis: epidemiology, diagnosis, and management.

Acute tubular necrosis (ATN) is a form of acute renal failure (ARF) that is common in hospitalized patients. In critical care units, it accounts for about 76% of cases of ARF. Despite the introduction of hemodialysis > 30 years ago, the mortality rates from ATN in hospitalized and ICU patients are about 37.

Tolerability of mycophenolate mofetil in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: To quantify the adverse events (AE) associated with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), to examine the relationship between AE and dosage of MMF, and to assess the overall tolerability of MMF in SLE patients.

Methods: A consecutive cohort of adults with SLE who received MMF between October 1996 and June 1999 was identified. Charts were reviewed for baseline data, AE, MMF dosing characteristics, and clinical response at baseline, 3 months, and at final followup or drug discontinuation.