[Cognitive impairment and the blood-brain barrier in chronic kidney disease: role of the uremic toxins].

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of cognitive disorders, presenting as vascular dementia, compared with the general population. These cognitive disorders occur early during the course of the kidney disease and evolve in parallel with the decline in glomerular filtration rate. They affect 30 to 80 % of patients with stage 5 CKD.

[REIN: a tool to support scientific research].

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the REIN (French Renal Epidemiology and Information Network), a summary work on the contributions of the national French ESKD register was carried out. On the issue its role in research, the following key messages were retained. The growing number of publications, dissertations, theses and teams involved shows that the REIN registry has attained its objective of being a shared research infrastructure, in the field of epidemiology as well as in public health, health economics or medical data processing.

Weaning Maintenance Therapy in Lupus Nephritis: For Whom, When, and How?

Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the main determinants of the severity of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). LN flares can lead to organ damage with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or even end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and impair patients' survival. The "treat-to-target" strategy, which aims at obtaining and maintaining remission or low disease activity of SLE to alleviate symptoms and prevent organ damage, also refers to the control of residual activity in the kidney.

Impact of reference panel composition on scores of script concordance test assessing basic nephrology knowledge in undergraduate medical education.

Purpose: In the assessment of basic medical knowledge, the composition of the reference panel between specialists and primary care (PC) physicians is a contentious issue. We assessed the effect of panel composition on the scores of undergraduate medical students in a script concordance test (SCT).

Methods: The scale of an SCT on basic nephrology knowledge was set by a panel of nephrologists or a mixed panel of nephrologists and PC physicians.

VNtyper enables accurate alignment-free genotyping of coding VNTR using short-read sequencing data in autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease.

The human genome comprises approximately 3% of tandem repeats with variable length (VNTR), a few of which have been linked to human rare diseases. Autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease- (ADTKD-) is caused by specific frameshift variants in the coding VNTR of the gene. Calling variants from VNTR using short-read sequencing (SRS) is challenging due to poor read mappability.

Indoxyl sulfate inhibits muscle cell differentiation via Myf6/MRF4 and MYH2 downregulation.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with a significant decrease in muscle strength and mass, possibly related to muscle cell damage by uremic toxins. Here, we studied in vitro and in vivo the effect of indoxyl sulfate (IS), an indolic uremic toxin, on myoblast proliferation, differentiation and expression of myogenic regulatory factors (MRF)-myoblast determination protein 1 (MyoD1), myogenin (Myog), Myogenic Factor 5 (Myf5) and myogenic regulatory factor 4 (Myf6/MRF4)-and expression of myosin heavy chain, Myh2.

Methods: C2C12 myoblasts were cultured in vitro and differentiated in myotubes for 7 days in the presence of IS at a uremic concentration of 200 µM.

Lupus activity and outcomes in lupus patients undergoing maintenance dialysis.

Objectives: Lupus activity has long been considered to decline after initiation of maintenance dialysis (MD). This assumption is based on limited historical data. We aimed to describe the natural history of lupus in patients undergoing MD.

Systematic Comparison of Uremic Toxin Removal Using Different Hemodialysis Modes: A Single-Center Crossover Prospective Observational Study.

Many hypotheses could explain the mortality decrease observed using hemodiafiltration, such as reduction of intradialytic hypotension and more efficient toxin removal. We led a systematic analysis of representative uremic toxin removal with hemodialysis (HD), online postdilution hemodiafiltration (postHDF) and online predilution hemodiafiltration (preHDF), in a single-center crossover and prospective observational study. The primary outcome was the reduction ratio of uremic toxins of the three categories defined by the Eutox group.

Categorization of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus using disease activity, patient-reported outcomes, and transcriptomic signatures.

Objective: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) display symptoms that are not always related to disease activity and may distort clinical trial results. Recently, a clinical categorization based on the presence of type 1 (inflammatory manifestations) and/or type 2 (widespread pain, fatigue, depression) symptoms has been proposed in SLE. Our aim was to develop a type 2 score derived from the Short-Form health survey (SF-36) to categorize SLE patients and to compare immunological and transcriptomic profiles between groups.

Kidney disease and stroke: epidemiology and potential mechanisms of susceptibility.

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of both ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke compared with the general population. Both acute and chronic kidney impairment are independently associated with poor outcome after the onset of a stroke, after adjustment for confounders. End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is associated with a 7- and 9-fold increased incidence of both ischaemic and haemorrhagic strokes, respectively, poorer neurological outcome and a 3-fold higher mortality.

Nonskeletal and skeletal effects of high doses versus low doses of vitamin D in renal transplant recipients: Results of the VITALE (VITamin D supplementation in renAL transplant recipients) study, a randomized clinical trial.

Vitamin D sufficiency is associated with a reduced risk of fractures, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular events, and cancers, which are frequent complications after renal transplantation. The VITALE (VITamin D supplementation in renAL transplant recipients) study is a multicenter double-blind randomized trial, including nondiabetic adult renal transplant recipients with serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH) vitamin D) levels of <30 ng/mL, which is randomized 12 to 48 months after transplantation to receive high (100 000 IU) or low doses (12 000 IU) of cholecalciferol every 2 weeks for 2 months and then monthly for 22 months. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint, including diabetes mellitus, major cardiovascular events, cancer, and death.

Ultra-lung-protective ventilation and biotrauma in severe ARDS patients on veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a randomized controlled study.

Background: Ultra-lung-protective ventilation may be useful during veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (vv-ECMO) for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) to minimize ventilator-induced lung injury and to facilitate lung recovery. The objective was to compare pulmonary and systemic biotrauma evaluated by numerous biomarkers of inflammation, epithelial, endothelial injuries, and lung repair according to two ventilator strategies on vv-ECMO.

Methods: This is a prospective randomized controlled study.

Nephrosclerosis in young patients with malignant hypertension.

Background: Nephrosclerosis is one of the histopathological consequences of severe or malignant hypertension (MH), some of the pathophysiology of which has been extrapolated from essential polygenetic arterial hypertension. Despite our recent description of unsuspected ciliopathies with MH, causes of MH in young patients with severe renal impairment are poorly understood.

Methods: To refine and better describe the MH phenotype, we studied clinical and prognostic factors in young patients receiving a kidney biopsy following their first episode of MH.

Impact of Dexamethasone and Inhaled Nitric Oxide on Severe Acute Kidney Injury in Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is the second most frequent condition after acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in critically ill patients with severe COVID-19 and is strongly associated with mortality. The aim of this multicentric study was to assess the impact of the specific treatments of COVID-19 and ARDS on the risk of severe AKI in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Methods: In this cohort study, data from consecutive patients older than 18 years admitted to 6 ICUs for COVID-19-related ARDS requiring invasive mechanical ventilation were included.