Diabetes retinopathy is a poor predictor for renal and cardiovascular outcomes in comparison with hypertensive retinopathy in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Aims: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and retinopathy share the common pathophysiology of microvascular dysfunction. It is unclear whether the clinical significance of diabetic retinopathy (DMR) and hypertensive retinopathy (HTNR) differs in CKD patients.

Methods: We included 684 nondialysis-dependent CKD stage 3-5 patients with diabetes or hypertension: 501 patients with diabetes and 183 with hypertension.

Diagnostic utility of immunochemical fecal occult blood tests to detect lower gastrointestinal lesions in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Purpose: The immunochemical fecal occult blood test (iFOBT) is a useful method to screen for lower gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding-related lesions. However, few studies have investigated the diagnostic utility of iFOBT in chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Methods: We included 691 patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD stages 2-5 or those receiving dialysis.

Unresolved subclinical hypothyroidism is independently associated with progression of chronic kidney disease.

Background And Aim: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) often have subclinical hypothyroidism. However, few reports have investigated changes in the status of subclinical hypothyroidism in CKD patients and its clinical significance in CKD progression.

Methods: We included 168 patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD stages 2-4.

Use of blood tests to predict upper gastrointestinal lesions in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Objective: Anemia and iron deficiency are common complications in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, information about the diagnostic indicators of bleeding-related upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract lesions is sparse and few studies have investigated anemic upper GI tract lesions.

Methods: We included 165 anemic patients with non-dialysis-dependent CKD stages 3 to 5 (44 patients at stage 3, 52 patients at stage 4, and 69 patients at stage 5).

[A case of pneumatosis intestinalis associated with sunitinib treatment for renal cell carcinoma].

Sunitinib as a multitarget tyrosine kinase inhibitor is one of the anti-tumor agents, approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to use treat gastrointestinal stromal tumor and metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The agent is known to commonly induce adverse reactions such as fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, stomatitis, esophagitis, hypertension, skin toxicity, reduciton in cardiac output of left ventricle, and hypothyroidism. However, it has been reported to rarely induce adverse reactions such as nephrotic syndrome and irreversible reduction in renal functions, and cases of intestinal perforation or pneumatosis interstinalis as such reactions have been consistently reported.

A case of patent ductus arteriosus with congestive heart failure in a 80-year-old man.

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a rare clinical finding in adult patients. Considering the increase in cases of PDA discovered incidentally on echocardiograms at young ages, and the life-shortening effect of PDA, it is rare to diagnose PDA in old patients. We report a case of an 80-year-old patient who experienced symptoms of congestive heart failure showed findings suggestive of PDA in echocardiogram and confirmed the diagnosis through a cardiac catheterization and a coronary angiography.