PURPOSE The predominant cause of mortality in dialysis patients are cardiovascular events. Platelet and monocyte activity markers play an important role in cardiovascular mortality and were assessed and related to dialysis quality criteria in haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. METHODS For this prospective comparative study, HD patients (n = 41) and PD patients (n = 10) ...

BACKGROUND Health-related quality of life (HRQL) is an important outcome in the treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and appears to be highly associated with patient self-report of symptom burden. This study examines the longitudinal validity of the modified Edmonton symptom assessment system (ESAS) to determine the impact of change in symptom burden on the change in HRQL of haemodialysi...

BACKGROUND It has been hypothesized that correction of metabolic acidosis might improve the nutritional state of acidotic haemodialysis (HD) patients partly because of a reduced oxidation of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). AIM We investigated whether bicarbonate (Bic) supplementation in acidotic HD patients results in increased plasma levels of BCAA. METHODS In a longitudinal study (run-...

PURPOSE People with normotension and with essential hypertension are subjected to the diurnal rhythm of blood pressure (BP) with higher values during the day than during the night. Among dialysed patients nocturnal reduction of BP is blunted. The aim of the study was to evaluate diurnal BP rhythm and adrenergic activity measured as values of catecholamines. MATERIAL AND METHODS Study was perf...

BACKGROUND Patients on haemodialysis (HD) are at an increased risk of sustaining thrombotic events especially to their vascular access which is essential for maintenance of HD. OBJECTIVES To assess whether 1) markers of coagulation, fibrinolysis or endothelial activation are increased in patients on HD compared to controls and 2) if measurement of any of these factors could help to identify p...

BACKGROUND An abnormally high mortality from atherosclerotic cardiovascular (CV) accidents has long been reported in patients on maintenance haemodialysis (HD). However, incidence of atherosclerotic CV accidents had not been so far assessed in predialysis patients. In order to evaluate the respective influence of uraemia and the dialysis procedure, we compared incidence of atherosclerotic accid...

BACKGROUND HCV is a leading cause of liver chronic diseases all over the world. In developed countries the highest prevalence of infection is reported among intravenous drug users and haemodialysis (HD) patients. The present report is to identify the pathway of HCV transmission during an outbreak of HCV infection in a privately run haemodialysis (HD) unit in Italy in 2005. METHODS Dynamics of...

BACKGROUND Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) is a highly sensitive marker for the detection of myocardial damage. However, patients maintained on chronic dialysis often have increased serum cTnT concentrations without evidence of acute myocardial injury. The reason for this is unclear. In chronic haemodialysis patients, elevated plasma concentrations of big endothelin-1 (big ET-1) and endothelin-1 (ET-...

BACKGROUND Thrombotic complications are common in patients with endstage renal disease and contribute substantially to the morbidity and mortality in this population. The aim of the present study was to: i) determine the prevalence and the extent of hypercoagulability in patients undergoing dialysis treatment by measuring parameters that directly reflect thrombin concentrations; ii) assess chan...

PURPOSE Central venous catheters (CVC) are frequently used for haemodialysis (HD) in children. However, there is paucity of information on the outcomes of CVCs when used for HD in very young patients. Our objective is to report the success, safety and complication rates of CVCs used for HD in children weighing less than 15 kg. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a single-center retrospective study ...