BACKGROUND Chronic haemodialysis (HD) may relieve some medical problems of terminal uraemia, but the life expectancy of patients is still significantly shortened, and there is a greatly increased morbidity. This includes pulmonary morbidity and chronic central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities. Previous studies have shown that a considerable amount of air microbubbles emanate within the blood ...

BACKGROUND The treatment of chronic kidney disease through dialysis is a considerable expense in most health systems. The two chief methods of providing dialysis, haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) have significant differences in cost composition and factors of production. The aim of this article is to identify and quantify the macroeconomic variables that influence the relative co...

BACKGROUND In patients with chronic renal failure (CRF), cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of increased morbidity and mortality. We hypothesized a role for endothelial activation and microparticle (MP) numbers and procoagulant activity in the pre-thrombotic state of these patients. METHODS We analysed blood samples of 27 patients with CRF [8 chronic kidney disease Stage 4 (CKD4), 9 ...

BACKGROUND In the context of the transformation of the Health Systems of Central and Eastern European countries, the role of professional associations is increasing, especially as regards data collection, analysis, and implementation of programmes for development of nephrology and renal replacement therapy (RRT). METHODS The Romanian Renal Registry sent questionnaires to the heads of Haemodia...

BACKGROUND Guidance varies regarding the optimal timing of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between uraemia, haemodialysis and early AVF failure. METHODS Immunoblotting and cell proliferation assays were performed on vascular smooth muscle cells (VSM) cells isolated from long saphenous vein samples to evaluate the cells' ability to pr...

There were 58,968 adult patients receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the UK on 31st December 2014, an absolute increase of 4.0% from 2013.The actual number of patients increased 2.0% for haemodialysis (HD), 5.3% for those with a functioning transplant but decreased 0.7% for peritoneal dialysis (PD).The UK adult prevalence of RRT was 913 per million population (pmp). The reported preval...

INTRODUCTION Cardiovascular (CV) events are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in haemodialysis (HD) patients. Hypertension, increased arterial stiffness and left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy are highly prevalent and are often poorly controlled. Volume overload is an important factor and survival could be improved by treatment strategies that preserve residual renal function (RRF), reduce...

During haemodialysis (HD) sessions, patients undergo alterations in the extracellular environment, mostly concerning plasma electrolyte concentrations, pH, and volume, together with a modification of sympathovagal balance. All these changes affect cardiac electrophysiology, possibly leading to an increased arrhythmic risk. Computational modeling may help to investigate the impact of HD-related ...

INTRODUCTION Abdominal fat mass is an important risk factor of inflammation in the general population as it is in haemodialysis (HD) patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of adiposity using the conicity index (Ci) with nutritional-inflammatory markers and to analyse whether these factors were related with the clinical outcome in HD patients. METHODS A cross-sectio...

BACKGROUND Abnormal values of the spatial angle between the directions of ventricular depolarization and repolarization (QRS-T) reflect the action potential inhomogeneities and predict cardiac events and mortality in various patient groups. The study was designed to (i) compare QRS-T in haemodialysis (HD) patients and healthy subjects, (ii) assess the influence of HD on QRS-T and (iii) evaluate...