Carbamylated hemoglobin (CarHb) is formed by the reaction of hemoglobin with cyanate derived from the spontaneous dissociation of in vivo urea. Previous studies have shown that formation of CarHb depends upon both the severity and the duration of renal failure. To study the clinical significances of CarHb in Korean patients with chronic renal failure, we measured CarHb levels by high-performance liquid chromatography in 159 CRF patients and 46 normal controls. Patients with CRF had a higher CarHb concentration than normal controls (107.9+/-58.8 vs 35.1+/-14.2 microgramVH/gHb; P<0.001). In patients with CRF, nondialysis group had a higher value than dialysis group (129.8+/-77.9 vs 98.7+/-46.1 microgramVH/gHb; P<0.05). There were no siginificant difference in CarHb levels between hemodialysis (92.0+/-35.8microgramVH/gHb) and peritoneal dialysis (106.7+/-55.3microgramVH/gHb) groups. CarHb levels were not different between diabetic and nondiabetic patients in predialysis and hemodialysis groups. Although there was a significant difference in peritoneal dialysis group, the BUN levels were also lower in diabetic patients than nondiabetic patients. There were no correlation between CarHb and HbA1c percentage in patients with diabetes. CarHb levels were positively correlated with BUN (r=0.489; P<0.001) and creatinine (r=0.458; P<0.01) concentrations. There were negative correlations between CarHb and both Kt/V (r=-0.358; P<0.05) and URR (r=-0.415; P<0.05) in hemodialysis patients. In conclusion, CarHb may be a useful index of uremic control in patients with chronic renal failure, and are independent of the mode of dialysis and the presence of diabetes.
Chromatography, Liquid ; Creatinine ; Dialysis ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Renal Dialysis ; Renal Insufficiency ; Urea

BACKGROUNDS: The peritoneal catheter is the continuous ambu1atary peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients lifeline. Over the years, Obstruction or displacement of the chronic dialysis catheter have been a common complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD), Laparoscopic surgery or guide wire directed manipulation under fluoroscopy have been developed to manage outflow obstruction. We describes our retrospective experience with laparoscopic surgery or fluoro-scopically controlled guide wire manipulation, including catheter outcome to determine the ultimate benefit of these procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: During the period from June 1996 to May 1999, 182 Tenckhoff double-cuff peritoneal catheter were inserted. Approximately 86Yo of the catheters were inserted by nephrologist using the Y-TEC system and 14% by laparoscopic implantation. 21 (11.5%) were manipulated. 11 (52%) were initially performed with guide wire under fluoroscopic control. The remaining 10 manipulations were performed by laparoscopic surgery. A successful outcome was defined as normal peritoneal catheter function at thirty days. RESULTS: Among the catheters manipulated, 16 (76%) were inserted by nephrologist and 5 (24%) inserted by surgeons. The time elapsed between catheter insertion and manipulation varied between one day and thirty-two days with a mean of nine days. The primary etiology of dysfunction was catheter displacement in fourteen, and omental wrapping with adhesions in the remaining 7 cases. Thirty-day catheter function was achieved in 52% of initially catheter manipulations with guide wire under fluoroscapic control (40%) or laparoscopic surgery (60%) and 100% of subsequently laparoscopic manipulations following initially guide wire under fluoroscopy, with an overall success rate of 15 of 21 (71.4%). There were no significant complications. CONCLUSION: Malfunctioning CAPD catheters can successfully be restored to a usable state by the combination laparoscopic surgery and fluoroscopically guide wire manipulations.
Catheters* ; Dialysis ; Fluoroscopy* ; Humans ; Laparoscopy* ; Peritoneal Dialysis* ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Retrospective Studies

No abstract available.
Erythropoietin* ; Humans* ; Kidney Failure, Chronic*

OBJECTIVES: In order to evaluate the role of these cytokines in biological response induced by blood interaction with hemodialysis membranes. METHODS: We have investigated the IL-1, TNF and IL-6 concentrations in the supernatant of 24-hours cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) without(spontaneous group) or with broken cuprophan or P1VMA membranes in 9 chronic hemodialyzed patients and 8 healthy controls. The blood samples were drawn before dialysis using following criteria: (a) in last dialytic treatment with PMMA membranes(HDEl), (b) after two weeks of dialytic treatment wih cuprophan membranes(HDE2). RESULTS: In the both of patient group(HDE1 and HDE2) and controls production of IL-l, TNF and IL-6 of PBMC stimulated with cuprophan or PMMA membrane particles was increased compared to those of spontaneous group. IL-1 production of HDE1 stimulated PMMA(99.31 +/- 30.15fmol/ml) was significantly higher compared to that of cuprophan(48.43 +/- 11.29fmol/ml), TNF production of HDE2 with cuprophan(114.86 +/- 38.5lfmoVml) was significantly high compared to that of spontaneous group(52.42 +/- 29.94fmol/ml). IL-6 production of HDE2(646.70 +/- 103.84fmol/ml) was significantly high compared to that of spontaneous group(385.88 +/- 87.03fmoVml). Comparing cytokine production of PBMC, there was a significant correlation between IL-1 and IL-6(r=0.78), IL-1 and TNF(r=0.78) and TNF and IL-6(r=0,76). CONCLUSION: Our results show that the interaction of cuprophan or PMMA membranes with blood increase the production of IL-1, TNF and IL-6. We suggest that in patients undergoing routine hemodialysis PBMC are primed by exposure to chronic stimulation.
Cytokines ; Dialysis ; Humans ; Interleukin-1* ; Interleukin-6* ; Membranes* ; Polymethyl Methacrylate ; Renal Dialysis

A 24-year-old male visited our hospital because of pain in both flanks. His biochemistry profile showed an elevated serum creatinine level and low serum uric acid level. History taking revealed that he had undertaken exercise prior to the acute kidney injury (AKI) event, and he stated that family members had a history of urolithiasis. His renal profile improved after hydration and supportive care during hospitalization. Although the patient was subsequently admitted again due to AKI, his status recovered with similar treatment. Since the diagnosis of the patient was familial renal hypouricemia with exercise-induced AKI, we performed genotyping of SLC22A12, which encodes human urate transporter 1. The diagnosis was confirmed by the detection of a homozygous mutation of W258X. We herein, report a case of familial renal hypouricemia confirmed by genotyping of SLC22A12, and review the relevant literature.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Biochemistry ; Creatinine ; Diagnosis ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Male ; Uric Acid ; Urolithiasis ; Young Adult

BACKGROUNDS: It is useful to estimate the percentage of donor's red cell population in the recipient's blood for determinating the erythroid engraftment and proliferation after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). We evaluate the usefulness of Rh antigen determination by flow cytometry and agglutination method for the decision of erythroid engraftment and proliferation after ABO compatible BMT. METHODS: In the case of ABO compatible, Rh mismatched BMT (donor; ccDEE, recipient; Ccdee), the percentage of donor typed red cells was estimated by the flow cytometric analysis using polyclonal anti-D sera during the follow-up period by weekly. At the same time, the agglutination test using polyclonal/monoclonal anti-D sera and monoclonal anti-E sera were performed. RESULTS: At 4th week after BMT, the percentage of RhD positive-donor typed red cells was increased up to 5% in flow cytometric analysis, whereas the agglutination test did not reveal any changes of agglutination in reaction using anti-D and anti-E antibodies. At 5th week after BMT, about 10% of RhD positive cells were identified by flow cytometry, the agglutination test for D and E antigen determination revealed the changes of agglutination strength at first. At 12th week after BMT, 95% of patient's red cells converted RhD positive in flow cytometric analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Rh antigen determinations by flow cytometric analysis and agglutination test are useful to estimate erythroid engraftment and proliferation after ABO compatible BMT.
Agglutination ; Agglutination Tests ; Antibodies ; Bone Marrow Transplantation* ; Bone Marrow* ; Flow Cytometry ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Tissue Donors

Peritonitis in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) is a major cause of technical failure in peritoneal dialysis. The major pathogen is gram positive bacteria, and other main pathogens include gram negative bacteria, mixed microorganisms and fungi. The case of imipenem resistance Acinetobacter baumannii (IRAB) peritonitis are not common. We report a case of peritonitis by IRAB that was not responsive to the empirical antibiotics for CAPD-associated peritonitis. A 56-year-old male with a CAPD catheter inserted 2 weeks before visited our hospital for abdominal pain and turbid peritoneal fluid. He had been diagnosed as having an end stage renal disease (ESRD) about a month before. White blood cell and neutrophil count were elevated at the initial peritoneal fluid analysis, so we diagnosed him as having CAPD-associated peritonitis. Antibiotic therapy was initiated with intraperitoneal injections of ceftazidime/cefamezine which were soon changed to vancomycin/ceftazidime. However, vancomycin/ceftazidime regimen proved ineffective. On the fifth and sixth hospital day, IRAB was cultured from the CAPD catheter exit site swab and peritoneal fluid sampled on the first visiting day. Accordingly, we changed the antibiotics to colistin and removed the CAPD catheter, which led to clinical and laboratory improvement. In the cases of CAPD associated peritonitis in patients who have a history of ICU stay, exposure to the 3rd generation cephalosporin or imipenem, or who are elderly, we must suspect unusual pathogen or multi-drug resistance pathogen such as IRAB.
Abdominal Pain ; Acinetobacter ; Acinetobacter baumannii ; Aged ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Ascitic Fluid ; Catheters ; Colistin ; Drug Resistance, Multiple ; Fungi ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; Gram-Positive Bacteria ; Humans ; Imipenem ; Injections, Intraperitoneal ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Leukocytes ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neutrophils ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Peritonitis

A multicenter prospective study was done in four-university hospital to evaluate the efficacy and safety of cyclosporin A(CyA, Cipol-N(R)) in 64 patients with adult nephrotic syndrome mean age 34.8 years, male:female 2.4:1, duration of disease 38.0+/-40.9months, 31 patients with MCD, 33 patients with Non-MCD (8 FSGS, 14 MGN, 7 MPGN, 2 lupus nephritis, 1 HBsAg associated GN)]. The prior steroid responses of these patients were 17 steroid dependent, 9 frequent relapser, 4 steroid resistant and 1 other in MCD patients, and 5 steroid dependent, 5 frequent relapser, 22 steroid resistant and 1 other in Non-MCD patients. After a 2-week steroid (predni-solon 10mg/day or deflazacort 12mg/day) run-in period, CyA 5mg/kg/day and prednisolone 10mg/day (or deflazacort 12mg/day) were administered for up to 16 weeks. Of the 64 patients enrolled, ll patients were dropped out prematurely due to adverse events or protocol violation. Of the 53 patients who completed the study, 27 had MCD and 26 had Non- MCD. High response (CR and PR) rate of 68% (36/53) were obtained with CyA treatment in all patients. Although the response rate in MCD was significantly higher than that in Non-MCD (89 vs. 46%, p<0.05) and response rates were significantly different according to the previous steroid responses by univariate analysis, only previous steroid responses affected the response to CyA significantly by Logistic multiple regression analysis (p=0.03, RR 7.08); responses were 84% (27/32) in steroid dependent and frequent relapser patients, and 37% (7/19) in steroid resistant patients. 24-hr proteinuria significantly decreased after 2 weeks and serum albumin and cholesteroi increased significantly after 4 weeks of treatment compared to baseline level. The serum creatinine level was not changed during the study. No serious and unexpected side event was observed. In conclusion, cyclosporine therapy is a safe and effective mode of treatment in patients with ne-phrotic syndrome, especially in those who need prolonged administration of steroids with resulting in unavoidable steroid complications such as frequent relapser and steroid dependent type. The patients with steroid resistant type and contraidications of steroid administration such as DM, aseptic bone neerosis etc. can also be candidates for this treatment.
Adult* ; Creatinine ; Cyclosporine* ; Glomerulonephritis, Membranoproliferative ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Humans ; Lupus Nephritis ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; Prednisolone ; Prospective Studies ; Proteinuria ; Serum Albumin ; Steroids

OBJECTIVE: Acute Renal Failure is a clinical syndrome characterized by a sudden decrease in renal function which was previously normal. Despite advances in medical care, prognosis in ARF is variable according to the influence of demographic factors, severity of ARF, nature of disease causing ARF, coexisting disease, treatments applied, and complications. We studied the recent changes of clinical feature of ARF. METHODS: We studied retrospectively 245 patients with ARF who had been hospitalized at Kyung Hee University Hospital between February 1988 and March 1993. RESULTS: 1) Male to female sex ratio was 1.8 : 1, and the incidence was high in above fifth decade (67.8%). 2) Acute renal failure was classified, according to clinical background, into medical group 79.6% (195 cases) and surgical group 20.4% (50 cases), and oliguric group 40.8% (100 cases) and non-oliguric group 59.2% (145 cases). 3) Acute renal failure due to medical causes included ARF by hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (25.6%), drugs and chemicals (17.9%), sepsis (17.4%) and systemic infection (7.7%) etc. ARF due to surgical causes included ARF by multiple trauma (34%), various surgical procedures (30%), surgical sepsis (14%), burn (12%) etc. 4) During admission, the expired patients had more severe biochemical and clinical characteristics including high BUN and serum potassium (p<0.01), lower serum albumin (p<0,01) than those of survivor. 5) Infections as the cause of ARF were 107 cases (43.7%), which included hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome 50 cases, sepsis 31 cases, urinary tract infection 7 cases and respiratory tract infection 6 cases etc. The most common infecting organism was Hantavizus (50.5%). There was a greater number of gram-negative organisms than gram-positive organisms (34.1% vs 9.9%). 6) The overall mortality rate in patients with ARF was 31.4Fo. The presumptive causes of death were underlying disease (59.7%) such as sepsis, acute poisoning, cardiogenic and hypovolemic shock, and respiratory failure (14.3%), hyperkalemia (9.1%), pulmonary edeme (6.5%), and metabolic aidosis (2.6%) in order of frequency. 7) The highest mortality rate was 42.6% in patients above 50 years old. Mortality rate in patients with ARF due to surgical causes (52.0%) was significantly high than that of medical causes (26.2%) (p<0.05). Among the expired patients, oliguric group was 72.7%. In conclusion, there have been major trends in the clinical features of acute renal failure in this study. Especially, significant increase in the number of elderly patients, non-oliguric patients, and medical causes such as hemarrhagic fever with renal syndrome or sepsis were observed. Survival rate significantly decreased with increasing age, in acute renal failure by surgical causes, in oligurie patients, and in the presence of complicating factors such as sepsis or shock.
Acute Kidney Injury* ; Aged ; Burns ; Cause of Death ; Demography ; Female ; Fever ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome ; Humans ; Hyperkalemia ; Incidence ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mortality ; Multiple Trauma ; Poisoning ; Potassium ; Prognosis ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Respiratory Tract Infections ; Retrospective Studies ; Sepsis ; Serum Albumin ; Sex Ratio ; Shock ; Survival Rate ; Survivors ; Urinary Tract Infections

Background/Aims: The aim of this in vivo animal study was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of dedicated cold snare (DCS) compared with those of traditional snare (TS) for cold snare polypectomy (CSP). Methods: A total of 36 diminutive (5 mm) and 36 small (9 mm) pseudolesions were made by electrocoagulation in the colons of mini-pigs. Results: For the diminutive lesions, there were no significant differences in technical success rate, procedure time, or complete resection rate between the DCS and TS groups; the rate of uneven resection margin in the DCS group was significantly lower than that of the TS group. For small lesions, technical success rate and complete resection rate were significantly higher in the DCS group than in the TS group (100% [18/18] vs. 55.6% [10/18], p=0.003; 94.4% [17/18] vs. 40% [4/10], p=0.006). In addition, the procedure duration was significantly shorter, and the rate of uneven resection margin was significantly lower in the DCS group (28.5 sec vs. 66.0 sec, p=0.006; 11.1% [2/18] vs. 100% [10/10], p<0.001). Two cases of perforation occurred in the DCS group. Multivariate analysis revealed that DCS use was independently associated with complete resection. Conclusions DCS is superior to TS in terms of technical success, complete resection, and reducing the duration of the procedure for CSP of small polyps.