Deceased-Donor Kidney Biopsy Scoring Systems for Predicting Future Graft Function: A Comparative Study.

Background: Deceased-donor kidney quality pretransplantation is considered critical for future graft function. Assessment of donor kidney quality considers clinical and histologic variables. Several models that incorporate a variety of these factors have been proposed to predict long-term graft survival.

Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Patients with Hypertriglyceridemia.

Purpose Of Review: Assessing the cardiovascular risk associated with hypertriglyceridemia can be challenging due to frequent confounding conditions such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia. We sought to quantify this risk by examining several meta-analyses as well as subgroup analyses of previously published major randomized controlled trials that focused on the treatment of hyperlipidemia.

Recent Findings: Recent trials measuring the effects of PCSK9 inhibitors such as evolocumab and alirocumab on cardiovascular outcomes have demonstrated a high degree of residual cardiovascular risk even after profound reductions in low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).

Can hospices predict which patients will die within six months?

Objective: To determine whether it is possible to predict, at the time of hospice enrollment, which patients will die within 6 months.

Design: Electronic health record-based retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Patients admitted to 10 hospices in the CHOICE network (Coalition of Hospices Organized to Investigate Comparative Effectiveness).