Coronary calcification and its association with mortality in haemodialysis patients - DANIELE M FENSTERSEIFER, CRISTINA KAROHL, PAULO SCHVARTZMAN, CÉSAR AR COSTA, FRANCISCO JV VERONESE

Link to abstract.  Nephrology - 14:2:164-170 - March 2009  
Coronary calcification was highly prevalent in these uraemic patients on chronic haemodialysis. A correlation was evidenced between CaCs and advanced age, but severity of the CAC score did not have an impact on 2-year mortality of this cohort.

Serial monitoring of nutritional status in Chinese peritoneal dialysis patients by Subjective Global Assessment and comprehensive Malnutrition Inflammation - TIMOTHY HUA-TSE CHENG, DEBBY HIU-HA LAM, STEVEN KONG-LING TING, CLAUDIA LAI-YIN WONG, BONNIE CHING-HA KWAN, KAI-MING CHOW, MAN-CHING LAW, PHILIP KAM-TAO LI, CHEUK-CHUN SZETO

Link to abstract.  Nephrology - 14:2:143-147 - March 2009  
The longitudinal changes in the MIS and SGA score have modest agreement with each other. However, PD patients with a longer duration of dialysis, higher serum ferritin, TIBC, total Kt/V or normalized protein nitrogen appearance tend to have discrepancies between the longitudinal changes in the MIS and SGA overall score.

Iron status and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with haemodialysis versus patients with ischaemic heart disease - YI-CHANG CHENG, WEI-WEN KUO, CHIEH-HSI WU, WEN-TONG SHU, CHIA-HUA KUO, JIN-MING HWANG, HSI-HSIEN HSU, LI-MING CHEN, CHIH-YANG HUANG, SHIN-DA LEE

Link to full text article.  Nephrology - 14:1:65-69 - February 2009  
Imbalanced iron status in patients on HD coexisted with abnormal lipid profiles, increased anaerobic activity and higher inflammatory status, which suggests that imbalanced iron status in HD patients may play a deleterious role in cardiovascular pathophysiology. Altered GH–IGF axis found in HD patients was more obvious than in IHD patients. This may imply that the GH–IGF axis system is modulated or adapted by HD.

Malnutrition–Inflammation Complex Syndrome and Hepatitis C in Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients - Vlastimir Vlatkovic, Jasna Trbojevic-Stankovic, Biljana Stojimirovic

Link to abstract.  Therapeutic Apheresis and Dialysis - 13:2:113-120 - April 2009  
MICS had a prevalence of 20–40% in our study. HCV-positive patients had a significantly higher prevalence of MICS than HCV-negative patients (30–40% vs. 20–30%).

DEFINITION OF METABOLIC SYNDROME IN PERITONEAL DIALYSIS - Sun-Hee Park and Bengt Lindholm

Link to abstract.  Peritoneal Dialysis International - 29:s2:137-144 -  
The broad use of MetS in clinical research has raised the awareness of the public and of individual patients concerning the value of lifestyle interventions. However, the definition and pathogenesis of MetS are still debated, and no standardized definition nor proven prognostic value has been established for MetS as a cluster of risk factors for diabetes or cardiovascular disease in PD patients. Furthermore, considering the paradoxical associations of some of the risk factors in MetS with decreased mortality, another set of risk factors—those specific to patients with uremia (for example, inflammation and malnutrition)—and the appropriate cut-off levels to individual MetS risk factors should be taken account at the same time. Also, the benefit of interventions targeting these risk factors should be clarified in further clinical studies.

APPLYING TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH IN UNDERSTANDING COMPLICATIONS AND DEFINING TARGETS FOR INTERVENTION: INFLAMMATION IN PD AS A MODEL - Roberto Pecoits–Filho

Link to abstract.  Peritoneal Dialysis International - 29:2:135-141 - March/April 2009  
Experience with a translational research environment that generated most of the information cited in this overview is the core of this manuscript. The central investigation theme described is how to approach the cardiovascular complications of peritoneal dialysis. The research question was, could the continuous activation of inflammatory pathways be central in this process and represent a relevant target for interventions?