Chronic diseases have become a major cause of global morbidity and mortality even in developing countries. The burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in India cannot be assessed accurately. The approximate prevalence of CKD is 800 per million population (pmp), and the incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is 150-200 pmp. The most common cause of CKD in population-based studies is diabetic...

Background: Viral infections are frequent in hemodialysis patients, notably those due to hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis G virus (HGV) cytomegalovirus (CMV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Objective: The aim of this work is to study the prevalence of viral infections among Egyptian children with end stage renal disease whether on conservative management or on...

BACKGROUND In patients treated by maintenance hemodialysis the relationship to survival of hemoglobin level and administered epoetin-alfa and intravenous iron is controversial. The study aim was to determine effects on patient survival of administered epoetin-alfa and intravenous iron, and of hemoglobin and variables related to iron status. METHODS The patients were 1774 treated by maintenanc...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of combined therapy with L-carnitine and erythropoietin on selected blood morphology parameters in patients treated with hemodialysis and to assess whether combined therapy could decrease the requirement for exogenous erythropoietin. PATIENTS AND METHODS The results of anemia treatment were compared in three groups of patients: 27 ...

BACKGROUND Health-care-associated infections (HAIs) affect 5% of patients hospitalized in the United States each year. Central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) are important and deadly HAIs, with reported mortality of 12%-25%. This report provides national estimates of the number of CLABSIs among patients in intensive-care units (ICUs), inpatient wards, and outpatient hemodialy...

BACKGROUND Hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) are both viable options for renal replacement therapy. Technique failure has been shown to be a major problem in PD therapy. OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between center size and PD technique failure. SETTING ESRD Network #1 (NW1). DESIGN Retrospective review of NW1 database. PATIENTS AND METHODS 5003 incident PD patients...

INTRODUCTION There is limited information published on switching erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) treatment for anemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) from darbepoetin alfa (DA) to methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (PEG-Epo) outside the protocol of interventional clinical studies. AFFIRM (Aranesp Efficiency Relative to Mircera) was a retrospective, multi-site, observat...

BACKGROUND Asia is a huge and populous continent with diverse economies where the status of renal replacement therapy varies among different countries. SUMMARY The penetration of dialysis is poor among low income countries like India and China. A lack of trained nephrologists and limited numbers of dialysis facilities plague South Asian countries. Most of the hemodialysis centers are in the p...

BACKGROUND Warfarin nomograms to guide dosing have been shown to improve control of the international normalized ratio (INR) in the general outpatient setting. However, the effectiveness of these nomograms in hemodialysis patients is unknown. We evaluated the effectiveness of anticoagulation using an electronic warfarin nomogram administered by nurses in outpatient hemodialysis patients, compar...

BACKGROUND Although parenteral iron replacement is a key aspect of managing anemia in patients who are undergoing hemodialysis, studies evaluating novel iron dosing regimens are scarce. OBJECTIVE To compare the effectiveness of a once-weekly IV iron dosing strategy with that of a conventional accelerated iron dosing regimen in patients undergoing hemodialysis. METHODS In this retrospective ...