Nephrology Referral Based on Laboratory Values, Kidney Failure Risk, or Both: A Study Using Veterans Affairs Health System Data.

Rationale & Objective: Current guidelines for nephrology referral are based on laboratory criteria. We sought to evaluate whether nephrology referral patterns reflect current clinical practice guidelines and to estimate the change in referral volume if they were based on the estimated risk of kidney failure.

Study Design: Observational cohort.

National Estimates of CKD Prevalence and Potential Impact of Estimating Glomerular Filtration Rate Without Race.

Background: The implications of removing the adjustment for Black race in equations to eGFR on the prevalence of CKD and management strategies are incompletely understood.

Methods: We estimated changes in CKD prevalence and the potential effect on therapeutic drug prescriptions and prediction of kidney failure if race adjustment were removed from the CKD-EPI GFR estimating equation. We used cross-sectional and longitudinal data from adults aged ≥18 years in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2015 to 2016, and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System in 2015.

Outcomes Among Patients With Left Ventricular Assist Devices Receiving Maintenance Outpatient Hemodialysis: A Case Series.

Rationale & Objective: The incidence of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation as destination therapy for heart failure is increasing and kidney failure requiring maintenance hemodialysis is a common complication. Because little is known about the safety or efficacy of outpatient hemodialysis among patients with LVADs, this study sought to describe their clinical course.

Study Design: Case series of patients with an LVAD undergoing maintenance outpatient hemodialysis whose clinical data were obtained from an electronic medical record.

The effect of blood flow rate on dialysis recovery time in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis: A prospective, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: A majority of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on in-center hemodialysis (HD) require several hours to recover from an HD session. Patients and caregivers identify fatigue as a high priority for improvement. However, evidence for practical interventions to improve recovery time from conventional in-center HD is lacking.