The Relationship between Vascular Biomarkers (Serum Endocan and Endothelin-1), NT-proBNP, and Renal Function in Chronic Kidney Disease, IgA Nephropathy: A Cross-Sectional Study.

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common primary glomerular disease. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is one of the strongest vasoconstrictor materials in the blood. The N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is associated with renal function and poor outcomes in chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Association between Visit-to-Visit Ultrafiltration Volume Variability, Vascular Biomarkers and Cardiovascular Parameters in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients.

Cardiovascular (CV) diseases are the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients. We studied the effect of high visit-to-visit ultrafiltration (UF) variability on CV abnormalities in HD patients. Twenty-nine consecutive patients (age: 65.

Does Metabolic Syndrome and Its Components Have Prognostic Significance for Renal and Cardiovascular Outcomes in IgA Nephropathy?

Background: Patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a chronic kidney disease (CKD), are significantly more likely to have cardiovascular (CV) mortality and morbidity than the general population. The occurrence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and metabolic risk factors are independent risk factors for CV disease and renal progression. The purpose of this study was to determine how metabolic characteristics in a homogeneous population of CKD patients relate to prognosis.

Are Platelet-Related Parameters Prognostic Predictors of Renal and Cardiovascular Outcomes in IgA Nephropathy?

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is associated with chronic inflammation. Platelet-related parameters, such as the platelet (PLT) count, platelet-to-albumin ratio (PAR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), were examined as potential prognostic indicators for renal and cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in IgAN. We were interested in whether platelet-related parameters are risk factors for ESKD and CV events in IgAN patients.

Acute Vascular Response to Hemodialysis as Measured by Serum Syndecan-1 and Endothelin-1 Levels as Well as Vascular Stiffness.

Background: Chronic hemodialysis (HD) patients have a very high cardiovascular risk. Acute vascular changes during dialysis mediated by factors of the endothelium may have a crucial role in this. The aim of this article is to study the acute vascular changes during HD.

Renal and cardiovascular prognostic significance of echocardiographic early diastolic mitral annular velocity in IgA nephropathy.

In chronic kidney disease (CKD), as in IgA nephropathy (IgAN), cardiovascular (CV) mortality and morbidity are many times higher than in the general population, and diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) has prognostic significance as well. Tissue Doppler Echocardiography (TDI) is another method for measuring myocardial contractility and determining diastolic dysfunction. 79 IgAN patients (age 46 ± 11 years) with CKD stages 1-3 were investigated and followed for 70 ± 28.

Relationship between arterial stiffness, left ventricular diastolic function, and renal function in chronic kidney disease.

Aim: In chronic kidney disease, IgA nephropathy, and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction have prognostic significance as well. However, the relationship between diastolic dysfunction, arterial stiffness, and renal function has not been fully elucidated.

Methods: 79 IgA nephropathy patients (aged 46 ± 11 years) and 50 controls were investigated.

Left ventricular myocardial mass index associated with cardiovascular and renal prognosis in IgA nephropathy.

Introduction: In chronic kidney disease (CKD), like in IgA nephropathy (IgAN), cardiovascular (CV) mortality and morbidity are many times higher than in the general population, and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent risk factor for CV disease. This follow-up study investigated the association between left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and renal or cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods: We examined 118 IgAN patients prospectively.

The prognostic role of heart rate recovery after exercise and metabolic syndrome in IgA nephropathy.

Background: Cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality are higher in chronic kidney disease (CKD) than in the general population. Reduced heart rate recovery (HRR) is an independent risk factor for CV disease. The aim of the study was to determine the prognostic role of HRR in a homogenous group of CKD patients.

Cardiometabolic Effects of Irisin in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease on Regular Hemo- or Peritoneal Dialysis.

Introduction: Data on the role of irisin in vascular calcification in patients with end-stage renal diseases on regular dialysis are inconsistent, and the underlying mechanisms are not clearly defined. The present study was designed to explore the association of serum irisin with vascular stiffness and with the impact of well-established risk factors.

Methods: The clinical study enrolled 52 hemodialysis (HD) and 15 continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients with an age of >18 years receiving dialysis therapy for >3 months.

Pro- and anti-inflammatory factors, vascular stiffness and outcomes in chronic hemodialysis patients.

Objective: In this observational study we addressed accelerated arteriosclerosis (AS) in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) on hemodialysis (HD) by measuring vascular stiffness (VS) parameters and attempted to relate them to pro-inflammatory and protective factors.

Patients: 96 consecutive patients receiving regular HD were included. 20 adult patients without major renal, cardiovascular or metabolic morbidities served as controls.

Arterial stiffness may predict renal and cardiovascular prognosis in autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Background and aims Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is one of the most common causes of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The most important cause of death among ADPKD patients is cardiovascular (CV). The aim of this study was to examine the prognostic significance of arterial stiffness on CV and renal outcomes in ADPKD.

The Impact of Osteocalcin, Osteoprotegerin and Osteopontin on Arterial Stiffness in Chronic Renal Failure Patients on Hemodialysis.

Background/aims: This cross-sectional study was designed to assess the relationship between vascular stiffness (VS) and bone-related proteins involved in the development of arteriosclerosis in patients on regular hemodialysis (HD).

Methods: 68 consecutive patients in stable clinical condition who received regular HD in the FMC Dialysis Center, Pécs were included. VS parameters (carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity - PWV, aortic augmentation index - AIx) were determined by applanation tonometry (SphygmoCor, AtCor Medical, Sidney) and the routine latoratory test were completed with measurements of osteocalcin (OC), osteopontin (OP) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) by using commercially available ELISA kits.

[Considerations on the treatment of IgA nephropathy on the basis of the results of the latest studies (STOP-IgAN, TESTING, NEFIGAN)].

IgA nephropathy is an immune-mediated chronic glomerulonephritis with a great variability in clinical presentation and outcome. The disease can progress to end-stage renal failure in 25% of patients. For this reason we should identify patients with potential to progress.

Revision endoscopic stapler Zenker's diverticulotomy.

Background: Endoscopic stapler diverticulotomy (ESD) has become an accepted primary treatment for Zenker's diverticulum (ZD). Recurrence of symptoms after surgical treatment of ZD is not uncommon, and traditionally patients with recurrent symptomatic ZD were referred to revision surgery by the transcervical Zenker's diverticulectomy approach. Our objective was to evaluate the technical feasibility, safety and effectiveness of revision endoscopic stapler diverticulotomy (RESD) for recurrent ZD.

Metabolic syndrome and other cardiovascular risk factors associated with the progression of IgA nephropathy.

Background: The metabolic syndrome is associated with modest but independent and additive risk of new onset chronic kidney disease (CKD) in several studies. The purpose of our study was to determine whether metabolic syndrome and other cardiovascular risk factors (hyperuricaemia and smoking) are associated with the progression of IgA nephropathy (IgAN).

Methods: Two hundred and twenty three IgAN patients (107 with and 116 without metabolic syndrome) were examined.

A novel cyclic RGD-containing peptide polymer improves serum-free adhesion of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells to bone implant surfaces.

Seeding of bone implants with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may promote osseointegration and bone regeneration. However, implant material surfaces, such as titanium or bovine bone mineral, fail to support rapid and efficient attachment of MSCs, especially under serum-free conditions that may be desirable when human applications or tightly controlled experiments are envisioned. Here we demonstrate that a branched poly[Lys(Ser(i)-DL-Ala(m))] polymer functionalized with cyclic arginyl-glycyl-aspartate, when immobilized by simple adsorption to tissue culture plastic, surgical titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V), or Bio-Oss(®) bovine bone substitute, significantly accelerates serum-free adhesion and enhances seeding efficiency of human adipose tissue-derived MSCs.

[Beyond genetics--the emerging role of epigenetics and its clinical aspects].

Analysis of genomic sequences has clearly shown that the genomic differences among species do not explain the diversity of life. The genetic code itself serves as only a part of the dynamic complexity that results in the temporal and spatial changes in cell phenotypes during development. It has been concluded that the phenotype of a cell and of the organism as a whole is more influenced by environmentally-induced changes in gene activity than had been previously thought.

Positional identity of murine mesenchymal stem cells resident in different organs is determined in the postsegmentation mesoderm.

Although mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) of distinct tissue origin have a large number of similarities and differences, it has not been determined so far whether tissue-resident MSCs are the progenies of one ancestor cell lineage or the results of parallel cell developmental events. Here we compared the expression levels of 177 genes in murine MSCs derived from adult and juvenile bone marrow and adult adipose tissue, as well as juvenile spleen, thymus, and aorta wall by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and the results were partially validated at protein level. All MSC lines uniformly expressed a large set of genes including well-known mesenchymal markers, such as α-smooth muscle actin, collagen type I α-chain, GATA6, Mohawk, and vimentin.

[Therapy in IgA nephropathy--when and how to do it].

IgA nephropathy is the most common primary glomerulonephritis worldwide. The clinical spectrum covers a wide range of features from minor urinary abnormalities (asymptomatic hematuria and mild proteinuria with normal renal function) to acute and chronic renal insufficiency. Ideally, the goal of treatment would be to correct any defects in IgA1 glycosylation and to modify mesangial deposition or removal of IgA1 deposits.

[Cardiorenal syndromes].

Cardiac and kidney diseases are very common, and increasingly coexist. Classification for cardiorenal syndrome and for its specific subtypes has been developed and published recently by a consensus group of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative. Cardiorenal syndromes have been classified according to whether the impairment of each organ is primary, secondary or whether heart and kidney dysfunction occurs simultaneously as a systemic disease.

Different effect of IgA nephropathy and polycystic kidney disease on arterial stiffness.

Background: Renal function is a major predictor of vascular function and cardiovascular diseases. Little information exists about the effect of specific renal diseases on vascular function in chronic kidney diseases (CKD).

Methods: One hundred and twenty patients (60 with IgA nephropathy, IgAN, and 60 with polycystic kidney disease, PKD) with CKD stages 1-4 were studied and compared.

Identical, similar or different? Learning about immunomodulatory function of mesenchymal stem cells isolated from various mouse tissues: bone marrow, spleen, thymus and aorta wall.

Mesenchymal stem or multipotent stromal cells (MSCs) have been implicated in tissue maintenance and repair and regulating immune effector cells through different mechanisms. These functions in mouse were primarily described for bone marrow (BM)-derived MSCs. To learn more about MSCs of different tissue origin, we compared the immunophenotype, differentiation ability to adipocyte and bone and immunomodulatory activity of MSCs isolated from BM, spleen, thymus and aorta wall of 14-day-old C57Bl/6 mice.