Great papers nephrology

BACKGROUND: The timing of renal-replacement therapy in critically ill patients who have acute kidney injury but no potentially life-threatening complication directly related to renal failure is a subject of debate. METHODS: In this multicenter randomized trial, we assigned patients with severe acute kidney injury (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes [KDIGO] classification, stage 3 [stages range from 1 to 3, with higher stages indicating more severe kidney injury]) who required mechanical ventilation, catecholamine infusion, or both and did not have a potentially life-threatening complication directly related to renal failure to either an early or a delayed strategy of renal-replacement therapy...

During the last few years, due to medical and surgical evolution, patients with increasingly severe diseases causing multiorgan dysfunction are frequently admitted to intensive care units. Therapeutic options, when organ failure occurs, are frequently nonspecific and mostly directed towards supporting vital function. In these scenarios, the kidneys are almost always involved and, therefore, renal replacement therapies have become a common routine practice in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury...

BACKGROUND: The most appropriate targets for systolic blood pressure to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among persons without diabetes remain uncertain. METHODS: We randomly assigned 9361 persons with a systolic blood pressure of 130 mm Hg or higher and an increased cardiovascular risk, but without diabetes, to a systolic blood-pressure target of less than 120 mm Hg (intensive treatment) or a target of less than 140 mm Hg (standard treatment). The primary composite outcome was myocardial infarction, other acute coronary syndromes, stroke, heart failure, or death from cardiovascular causes...

BACKGROUND: Conflicting blood pressure-lowering effects of catheter-based renal artery denervation have been reported in patients with resistant hypertension. We compared the ambulatory blood pressure-lowering efficacy and safety of radiofrequency-based renal denervation added to a standardised stepped-care antihypertensive treatment (SSAHT) with the same SSAHT alone in patients with resistant hypertension. METHODS: The Renal Denervation for Hypertension (DENERHTN) trial was a prospective, open-label randomised controlled trial with blinded endpoint evaluation in patients with resistant hypertension, done in 15 French tertiary care centres specialised in hypertension management...

IMPORTANCE: Steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, when added to a renin-angiotensin system blocker, further reduce proteinuria in patients with chronic kidney disease but may be underused because of a high risk of adverse events. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of different oral doses of the nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist finerenone, given for 90 days to patients with diabetes and high or very high albuminuria who are receiving an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Aldosterone-to-renin ratio (ARR) is a screening test for primary aldosteronism, but it was impacted by a bunch of clinical covariates. The ARR is associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD), renal artery stenosis, renin adenoma. This study aims to investigate relationship between ARR and primary aldosteronism in CKD patients. A retrospective observational analysis involves 253 attendees from Urology Department of Chengdu Military General Hospital (China), comprising 146 patients with confirmed primary aldosteronism, 56 patients with essential hypertension, and 55 patients with chronic kidney disease accounting for primary kidney disease...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Proteinuria is routinely measured to assess renal allograft status, but the diagnostic and prognostic values of this measurement for renal transplant pathology and outcome remain unclear. We included 1518 renal allograft recipients in this prospective, observational cohort study. All renal allograft biopsy samples with concomitant data on 24-hour proteinuria were included in the analyses (n=2274). Patients were followed for ≥7 years post-transplantation. Compared with proteinuria <0.3 g/24 h, the hazard ratios for graft failure were 1...

Proteinuria is a central component of chronic kidney disease and an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Kidney podocytes have an essential role as a filtration barrier against proteinuria. Kruppel-like Factor 4 (KLF4) is expressed in podocytes and decreased in glomerular diseases leading to methylation of the nephrin promoter, decreased nephrin expression and proteinuria. Treatment with an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) reduced methylation of the nephrin promoter in murine glomeruli of an adriamycin nephropathy model with recovery of KLF4 expression and a decrease in albuminuria...

BACKGROUND: Administration of ferric pyrophosphate citrate (FPC, Triferic™) via hemodialysate may allow replacement of ongoing uremic and hemodialysis-related iron losses. FPC donates iron directly to transferrin, bypassing the reticuloendothelial system and avoiding iron sequestration. METHODS: Two identical Phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled trials (CRUISE 1 and 2) were conducted in 599 iron-replete chronic hemodialysis patients. Patients were dialyzed with dialysate containing 2 µM FPC-iron or standard dialysate (placebo) for up to 48 weeks...

Although iron is commonly used to correct iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in chronic kidney disease (CKD), its effect on kidney function is unclear. To assess this, we randomly assigned patients with stage 3 and 4 CKD and IDA to either open-label oral ferrous sulfate (69 patients to 325 mg three times daily for 8 weeks) or intravenous iron sucrose (67 patients to 200 mg every 2 weeks, total 1 g). The primary outcome was the between-group difference in slope of measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) change over two years...

Ferric pyrophosphate citrate (FPC) is a water-soluble iron salt administered via dialysate to supply iron directly to transferrin. The PRIME study tested whether treatment with FPC could reduce prescribed erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) use and maintain hemoglobin in hemodialysis patients. This 9-month, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter clinical study included 103 patients undergoing hemodialysis 3-4 times weekly. The FPC group received dialysate containing 2 μmol/l of iron...

IMPORTANCE: No interventions have yet been identified to reduce the risk of acute kidney injury in the setting of cardiac surgery. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether remote ischemic preconditioning reduces the rate and severity of acute kidney injury in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In this multicenter trial, we enrolled 240 patients at high risk for acute kidney injury, as identified by a Cleveland Clinic Foundation score of 6 or higher, between August 2013 and June 2014 at 4 hospitals in Germany...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D; 25[OH]D) deficiency is common in patients initiating long-term hemodialysis, but the safety and efficacy of nutritional vitamin D supplementation in this population remain uncertain. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: This randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group multicenter trial compared two doses of ergocalciferol with placebo between October 2009 and March 2013. Hemodialysis patients (n=105) with 25(OH)D levels ≤32 ng/ml from 32 centers in the Northeast United States were randomly assigned to oral ergocalciferol, 50,000 IU weekly (n=36) or monthly (n=33), or placebo (n=36) for a 12-week treatment period...

BACKGROUND: Membranous nephropathy leads to end-stage renal disease in more than 20% of patients. Although immunosuppressive therapy benefits some patients, trial evidence for the subset of patients with declining renal function is not available. We aimed to assess whether immunosuppression preserves renal function in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy with declining renal function. METHODS: This randomised controlled trial was undertaken in 37 renal units across the UK...

BACKGROUND: Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) declines during long-term dialysis treatment. In peritoneal dialysis, blockade of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system reduces GFR decline. Observational studies suggest that similar treatment may preserve kidney function in hemodialysis (HD). STUDY DESIGN: A multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial, with 1-year follow-up. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: Adult HD patients with urine output >300mL/24h, HD vintage less than 1 year, and cardiac ejection fraction >30%...

Concerns about adverse effects of calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) have prompted development of protocols that minimize their use. Whereas previous CNI withdrawal trials in heterogeneous cohorts showed unacceptable rates of acute rejection (AR), we hypothesized that we could identify individuals capable of tolerating CNI withdrawal by targeting immunologically quiescent kidney transplant recipients. The Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation-09 Trial was a randomized, prospective study of nonsensitized primary recipients of living donor kidney transplants...

Rituximab induces nephrotic syndrome (NS) remission in two-thirds of patients with primary membranous nephropathy (MN), even after other treatments have failed. To assess the relationships among treatment effect, circulating nephritogenic anti-phospholipase A2 receptor (anti-PLA2R) autoantibodies and genetic polymorphisms predisposing to antibody production we serially monitored 24-hour proteinuria and antibody titer in patients with primary MN and long-lasting NS consenting to rituximab (375 mg/m(2)) therapy and genetic analyses...

Previous studies have suggested that living kidney donors maintain long-term renal function and experience no increase in cardiovascular or all-cause mortality. However, most analyses have included control groups less healthy than the living donor population and have had relatively short follow-up periods. Here we compared long-term renal function and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in living kidney donors compared with a control group of individuals who would have been eligible for donation. All-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) was identified in 1901 individuals who donated a kidney during 1963 through 2007 with a median follow-up of 15...