No abstract available.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) remains an important pathogen in organ transplant patients. However, cutaneous lesions are rare manifestation of systemic CMV infection. We report a case of CMV panniculitis in a 47-year-old renal transplant recipient. She admitted due to fever, local pain in the left pelvic area, and erythematous tender palpable mass for 2 weeks. Twenty years ago, she underwent renal transplantation and had taken azathioprin 100 mg and prednisone 10 mg daily. Serum creatinine had been preserved between 2.5 and 3.5 mg/dL. Bacterial, fungal, and AFB cultures of skin lesion and drained pus were negative. CMV antigenemia was noted. Skin biopsy revealed multinucleated dermal histiocytes and positive for CMV antibody by immunohistochemical staining. Polymerase chain reaction testing of skin tissue and drained pus revealed CMV DNA. She was treated with ganciclovir for four weeks and skin lesion was completely resolved without recurrence.
Biopsy ; Creatinine ; Cytomegalovirus* ; DNA ; Fever ; Ganciclovir ; Histiocytes ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation* ; Middle Aged ; Panniculitis* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prednisone ; Recurrence ; Skin ; Suppuration ; Transplantation ; Transplants

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in recipients of organ transplantation. CMV can affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. CMV gastritis has been reported in transplant patients. We present a case of CMV gastritis with postural epigastric pain, which increased upon standing or walking and decreased in the supine position. A persistent or unexplained symptom of epigastric pain warrants further investigations by upper and/or lower endoscopies and biopsies, particularly in the early post-transplantation period.
Biopsy ; Cytomegalovirus ; Gastritis ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Kidney ; Organ Transplantation ; Supine Position ; Transplants ; Walking

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in recipients of organ transplantation. CMV can affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. CMV gastritis has been reported in transplant patients. We present a case of CMV gastritis with postural epigastric pain, which increased upon standing or walking and decreased in the supine position. A persistent or unexplained symptom of epigastric pain warrants further investigations by upper and/or lower endoscopies and biopsies, particularly in the early post-transplantation period.
Biopsy ; Cytomegalovirus ; Gastritis ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Kidney ; Organ Transplantation ; Supine Position ; Transplants ; Walking

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) is an established treatment in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and innovations in the connection system have improved the survival of peritoneal dialysis patients over the last two decades. We investigated the outcome of CAPD over a 15-year period at our institution. METHODS: Patients who underwent peritoneal dialysis since 1994 were recruited retrospectively. Patients younger than 15 years at the initiation of CAPD and those who had less than 1 month of follow-up or missing data were excluded. The technique survival rate and causes of technique failure were evaluated. RESULTS: In all, 608 CAPD patients (342 males, 56.3%) were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. The mean age at the start of CAPD was 50.7+/-15.1 years and the mean duration of CAPD was 50.2+/-41.5 months. The most common primary renal disease was diabetes (39.6%), followed by chronic glomerulonephritis (37.2%) and hypertension (13.0%). The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year death-censored technique survival rates were 97.3, 91.7, 82.8, and 67.5%, respectively. Sex or diabetic status did not affect the technique survival rate. Patients younger than 60 years at the start of CAPD had a better technique survival than older patients (p=0.005). The main cause of technique failure was peritonitis (71.6%), followed by mechanical malfunction (10.5%), ultrafiltration failure (7.4%), and inadequate dialysis (6.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Complicating peritonitis was the most common cause of CAPD technique failure at our center. To reduce the technique failure in high-risk groups, more intensive management is needed.
Dialysis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Glomerulonephritis ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Male ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Peritonitis ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate ; Ultrafiltration

PURPOSE: Preservation of residual renal function (RRF) after initiation of peritoneal dialysis (PD) is beneficial for patient survival. It is unclear that same risk factors of pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients affect RRF in PD patients. This study was aimed to evaluate factors affecting RRF after commencement of PD. METHODS: Data from 80 patients commencing CAPD at Kyungpook National University Hospital between January 2001 and December 2008 were retrospectively collected. After PD commencement, biochemical and clinical data at baseline (1 month), 6, and 12 month were obtained. RRF was calculated as the average of creatinine clearance and urea nitrogen clearance from 24-hour urine collection and normalized with body surface area and mean RRF decline rate was calculated by dividing RRF difference between baseline to 12 month by period. RESULTS: Mean RRF decline rate (mL/min/1.73m2/month) was negatively correlated with left ventricular posterior wall thickness (LVPWT) (R2=0.097, p=0.023) and proteinuria (R2=0.126, p=0.003), whereas positively correlated with hematocrit (R2=0.076, p=0.013) at baseline. CONCLUSION: Decline of RRF during a year after commencement of PD was associated with baseline proteinuria and LVPWT.
Body Surface Area ; Creatinine ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular ; Nitrogen ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Proteinuria ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Urea ; Urine Specimen Collection

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to evaluate success rate and patency rate after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and to determine the factors affecting patency rate afterPTA in the management of insufficient arteriovenous fistula of hemodialysis patients. METHODS: Ninety-two cases of insufficient arteriovenous fistulae in 73 hemodialysis patients underwent angiography of the fistula and were treatedby PTA (native AVF: 67 cases, AV graft: 10 cases, central vein: 15 cases). The initial success rate and complications of PTA were evaluated. All patients were divided into two groups according to the age, sex, the duration of hemodialysis, a history of diabetes mellitus, the numbers of AVF operation, and the presence or absenceof thrombus. The patency rate was compared with the Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank test. To determine the clinical factors that affect vascular access failure rate, Cox regression method was used. RESULTS: The initial success rate of PTA was 78.2% (72/92). The patency rate after successful PTA was 80.0% at 6 months, and 73.2% at 12 months. The patency rate after successful PTA was significantly lower in cases which had two or more AVF operation (62.3% and 48.5% at 6 and 12 months) than just one (87.8% and 80.5% at 6 and 12 months). The most common PTA related complications were vessel spasm (3.9%) and hematoma (3.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The numbers of AVF operation was the only risk factor which affected the patency rate.
Angiography ; Angioplasty* ; Arteriovenous Fistula* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Fistula ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Renal Dialysis ; Risk Factors ; Spasm ; Thrombosis ; Transplants ; Veins

PURPOSE: Tacrolimus (TAC) may be less unfavorable than cyclosporin A (CsA) on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in renal transplant recipients, but well controlled studies are insufficient. METHODS: In this prospective randomized controlled study, fifty seven consecutive renal transplant recipients were treated with CsA-based (CsA, MMF and steroid, CsA group: n=27) or TAC-based (TAC, MMF and steroid, TAC group: n=30) immunosuppressive regimens by randomized ratio of 1:1. In the baseline (pre-operation), 1, 3, and 6 months after transplantation, several cardiovascular risk factors and graft function were evaluated. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the renal function, glucose regulation, the incidence of acute rejection and post-transplant diabetes mellitus for the post-transplant 6 months between the two groups. The blood pressure of the CsA group was maintained higher than TAC group through 6 months after transplantation even though the number of antihypertensive drugs in the CsA group was significantly higher at 3 and 6 month after transplantation. The lipid profiles except oxidized LDL were similar, but oxidized LDL level was significantly higher for the post-transplant 6 months in the CsA group (p<0.05). There were no significant differences in levels of fibrinogen, PAI-I, t-PA, hs-CRP, homocysteine, spot urine TGF-beta a and beta ig-h3, but the uric acid level was significantly higher in the CsA group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that TAC tends to have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular risk profiles, with regard to BP and atherogenic properties of serum lipids in early post-transplant period.
Antihypertensive Agents ; Blood Pressure ; Cardiovascular System ; Cyclosporine* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Fibrinogen ; Glucose ; Graft Survival ; Homocysteine ; Immunosuppression* ; Incidence ; Mortality ; Prospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Tacrolimus ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; Transplantation* ; Transplants* ; Uric Acid

PURPOSE: Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) has been associated with the promotion of renal allograft interstitial fibrosis and thereby chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN). Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been shown to contribute to cytoprotection of the graft after kidney transplantation. We investigated the influence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TGF-beta1 (C-509T and T869C) and the VEGF gene (C-2578A and C405G) on graft survival and the development of CAN. METHODS: Genotyping was carried out using a real-time polymerase chain reaction which was performed on the LightCycler480 in 221 Korean renal transplant recipients and 148 healthy controls. According to the presence of CAN or chronic calcineurin inhibitor nephrotoxicity, the recipients were separated into the CAN (n=21) and the No CAN (n=200) groups. RESULTS: The genotype frequencies of the SNPs were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The distributions of genotypes and alleles did not differ between recipients and controls. No significant differences were observed in the genotype distributions and allele frequencies between the CAN and the No CAN groups. The frequencies of haplotypes were not significantly different between the two groups, either. There were no statistically significant effects of TGF-beta1 and VEGF gene polymorphisms on graft survival. CONCLUSION: This study did not show any statistically significant effects of four selected SNPs of the TGF-beta1 and the VEGF genes on the development of CAN and graft survival in Korean renal transplant recipients.
Alleles ; Calcineurin ; Cytoprotection ; Fibrosis ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Graft Survival ; Haplotypes ; Kidney Transplantation ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Transplantation, Homologous ; Transplants ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A

PURPOSE: TGF-beta-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is associated with peritoneal fibrosis during PD. We conducted this study to evaluate the effect of BMP-7 adenoviral gene transfer on the functional and structural changes of peritoneum and whether it is associated with peritoneal EMT using an animal PD model. METHODS: Forty Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups; Control (C, n=8), Dialysis (D, n= 8), Rest (R, n=8), BMP-7 (B, n=8) and LacZ (L, n=8) group. Peritoneal function was assessed on baseline, 3rd, 6th, 8th weeks after PD. Immunohistochemistry for TGF-beta, VEGF, laminin and aquaporin-1 was performed in addition to morphometric analysis of peritoneum. Immunofluorescence staining with western blotting for alpha-SMA and E-cadherin, as markers of EMT, was performed. RESULTS: The thickness of submesothelial matrix was highest in D and significantly decreased in B compared to D, R and L. D/D0 glucose at 8 weeks was significantly increased in B and L compared to that of at 6 weeks, but there were no significant differences among R, B and L at 8 weeks. TGF-beta1 and VEGF expression was observed in submesothelial matrix in D and decreased in R, B and L. Peritoneal fibrosis and functional deterioration of peritoneal membrane were associated with EMT, which was partially reversed in R, B and L. CONCLUSIONS: BMP-7 gene transfer to peritoneum was not associated with the additive therapeutic effect on peritoneal function compared to the peritoneal rest, although it improved morphologic changes of peritoneum.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7 ; Cadherins ; Dialysis ; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Genetic Therapy ; Glucose ; Immunohistochemistry ; Laminin ; Membranes ; Models, Animal ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Fibrosis ; Peritoneum ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Transforming Growth Factor beta ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A