BACKGROUND/AIMS: It has been suggested that chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a risk factor for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and is associated with increased mortality among patients infected with C. difficile. However, recent studies of the clinical impact of CKD on CDI in Asians are still insufficient. We sought to determine the relationship between CKD and CDI in a Korean population. METHODS: This was a single-center, retrospective case-control study. In total, 171 patients with CDI were included as cases and 342 age- and gender-matched patients without CDI were used as controls. We compared the prevalence of CKD in the study sample and identified independent risk factors that could predict the development or prognosis of CDI. RESULTS: Independent risk factors for CDI included stage IV to V CKD not requiring dialysis (odds ratio [OR], 2.90) and end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis (OR, 3.34). Patients with more advanced CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30) and CDI showed higher in-hospital mortality and poorer responses to the initial metronidazole therapy. CONCLUSIONS: More advanced CKD is an independent risk factor for CDI and is associated with higher in-hospital mortality and poor treatment responses in CDI patients. Thus, in CKD patients, careful attention should be paid to the occurrence of CDI and its management to improve the outcome of CDI.
Aged ; Anti-Infective Agents/therapeutic use ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Clostridium difficile/*pathogenicity ; Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous/diagnosis/drug therapy/*microbiology/mortality ; Female ; Hospital Mortality ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/*complications/diagnosis/therapy ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Metronidazole/therapeutic use ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Renal Dialysis ; Renal Insufficiency, Chronic/*complications/diagnosis/mortality/therapy ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Treatment Outcome

Lower gastrointestinal complications often develop in end stage renal disease patients, and among the more problematic is recurrent colon ulcer. The exact pathogenesis of this condition is not known and there were no specific therapeutic modalities concerning this type of disease entity. We report, with a literature review, a case of recurrent colon ulcer with intermittent hematochezia in an end stage renal disease patient on long term hemodialysis that improved after conversion to peritoneal dialysis.
Aspirin/therapeutic use ; Colon/pathology ; Colonic Diseases/complications/*diagnosis/drug therapy ; Colonoscopy ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/*complications ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Recurrence ; Ticlopidine/therapeutic use ; Ulcer/complications/*diagnosis/drug therapy

No abstract available.
Adult ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Diabetes Insipidus, Nephrogenic/*complications/diagnosis/genetics/therapy ; Disease Progression ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/diagnosis/*etiology ; Male ; Mutation ; Phenotype ; Receptors, Vasopressin/genetics ; Renal Dialysis ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Serum procalcitonin (PCT) levels are low in healthy individuals but are elevated in patients with a serious bacterial infection or sepsis. In this study, we examined the ability of serum PCT concentration to diagnose infections in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, and sought to determine an appropriate threshold level. METHODS: Serum PCT levels were measured in ESRD patients on antibiotic therapy for a suspected bacterial infection (ESRD infection [iESRD] group, n = 21), and compared with those of ESRD patients on hemodialysis with no sign of infection (ESRD control [cESRD] group, n = 20). RESULTS: The mean serum PCT concentration of the iESRD group was significantly higher than in the cESRD group (2.95 +/- 3.67 ng/mL vs. 0.50 +/- 0.49 ng/mL, p = 0.006), but serum PCT concentrations did not correlate with severity of infection. The optimized threshold level derived for serum PCT was 0.75 ng/mL, rather than the currently used 0.5 ng/mL; this threshold demonstrated a sensitivity and specificity of 76.2% and 80.0% for infection and 100% and 60.6% for systemic inflammatory response syndrome, respectively, compared with the cutoff of 0.5 ng/mL. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that serum PCT at a cutoff value of 0.75 ng/mL is an appropriate indicator of infection in ESRD patients.
Adult ; Aged ; Area Under Curve ; Bacterial Infections/*blood/complications/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Biomarkers/blood ; Calcitonin/*blood ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Inflammation Mediators/*blood ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/*complications/diagnosis/therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Protein Precursors/*blood ; ROC Curve ; Renal Dialysis ; Reproducibility of Results ; Up-Regulation

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In several recent studies, renal biopsies in patients with type 2 diabetes and renal disease have revealed a heterogeneous group of disease entities. Our aim was to study the prognosis and clinical course of nondiabetic renal disease (NDRD) and to determine risk factors for NDRD in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Renal biopsy reports of 110 patients with type 2 diabetes who were seen at Kyung Hee University Medical Center and Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul, Korea between January 2000 and December 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Of 110 patients with type 2 diabetes, 41 (37.3%) had diabetic nephropathy (DN), 59 (53.6%) had NDRD, and 10 (9.1%) had NDRD superimposed on DN. Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (43.5%) was the most common NDRD. Patients with NDRD had a shorter duration of diabetes, lower frequency of diabetic retinopathy, and better renal outcomes, which might have resulted from the use of aggressive disease-specific treatments such as steroids and immunosuppressants in patients with NDRD. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with DN, NDRD was associated with better renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes, as evidenced by a higher cumulative renal survival rate and lower rate of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Shorter duration of diabetes and absence of retinopathy were independent predictors of NDRD in patients with type 2 diabetes and renal involvement. Renal biopsy is recommended for patients with type 2 diabetes and risk factors for NDRD, to obtain an accurate diagnosis, prompt initiation of disease-specific treatment, and ultimately better renal outcomes with the avoidance of ESRD.
Adult ; Biopsy ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/*complications/diagnosis/therapy ; Diabetic Nephropathies/diagnosis/etiology ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Glomerulonephritis, IGA/complications/diagnosis ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Kidney Diseases/*complications/diagnosis/therapy ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/diagnosis/etiology ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Odds Ratio ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Time Factors

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Nonselective beta-blockers (NSBBs), such as propranolol, reportedly exert a pleiotropic effect in liver cirrhosis. A previous report suggested that survival was higher in patients receiving adjusted doses of NSBBs than in ligation patients. This study investigated whether low-dose NSBB medication has beneficial effects in patients with liver cirrhosis, especially in terms of overall survival. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 273 cirrhotic patients (199 males; age 53.6+/-10.2 years, mean+/-SD) who visited our institution between March 2003 and December 2007; follow-up data were collected until June 2011. Among them, 138 patients were given a low-dose NSBB (BB group: propranolol, 20-60 mg/day), and the remaining 135 patients were not given an NSBB (NBB group). Both groups were stratified randomly according to Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) classification and age. RESULTS: The causes of liver cirrhosis were alcohol (n=109, 39.9%), hepatitis B virus (n=125, 45.8%), hepatitis C virus (n=20, 7.3%), and cryptogenic (n=19, 7.0%). The CTP classes were distributed as follows: A, n=116, 42.5%; B, n=126, 46.2%; and C, n=31, 11.4%. Neither the overall survival (P=0.133) nor the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-free survival (P=0.910) differed significantly between the BB and NBB groups [probability of overall survival at 4 years: 75.1% (95% CI=67.7-82.5%) and 81.2% (95% CI=74.4-88.0%), respectively; P=0.236]. In addition, the delta CTP score did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Use of low-dose NSBB medication in patients with liver cirrhosis is not indicated in terms of overall and HCC-free survival.
Adrenergic beta-Antagonists/*therapeutic use ; Adult ; Aged ; Alcohol Drinking ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/complications/diagnosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/complications/diagnosis ; Liver Cirrhosis/complications/*drug therapy/mortality ; Liver Neoplasms/complications/diagnosis ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Propranolol/*therapeutic use ; Retrospective Studies ; Severity of Illness Index

This study was designed to identify the causes of the development of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) associated with end stage kidney disease (ESKD). A total of 112 patients with ESKD, 64 on hemodialysis (HD) and 48 on peritoneal dialysis (PD), were enrolled. The duration of ESKD and dialysis, the site of the arteriovenous (A-V) fistula for HD, laboratory data such as blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and beta-2-microglobulin were determined. Clinical evaluation of CTS and electrophysiological studies for the diagnosis of CTS and peripheral neuropathy were performed. The electrophysiological studies showed that the frequency of CTS was not different in the HD and PD groups (P = 0.823) and the frequency of CTS was not different in the limb with the A-V fistula compared to the contralateral limb (P = 0.816). The frequency of HD and PD were not related to beta-2-microglobulin levels, an indicator of amyloidosis. The frequency of CTS did not increase as the severity of the peripheral neuropathy and the duration of ESKD and dialysis increased (P = 0.307). The results of this study do not support that microglobulin induced amyloidosis or placement of an A-V fistula are associated with an increase in CTS.
Adult ; Aged ; Amyloidosis/complications ; Arteriovenous Fistula/complications ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Carpal Tunnel Syndrome/*complications/*diagnosis ; Creatinine/blood ; Electrophysiological Phenomena ; Female ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/*complications/*therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Peritoneal Dialysis/adverse effects ; Polyneuropathies/*complications/*diagnosis ; Renal Dialysis/adverse effects ; beta 2-Microglobulin/blood

Allopurinol-induced hypersensitivity syndrome is characterized by an idiosyncratic reaction involving multiple-organs, which usually begins 2 to 6 weeks after starting allopurinol. In rare cases, the adverse reactions to allopurinol are accompanied by a variety of liver injury, such as reactive hepatitis, granulomatous hepatitis, vanishing bile duct syndrome, or fulminant hepatic failure. Here we report a case with granulomatous hepatitis and ductopenia. A 69-year-old man with chronic renal failure, hyperuricemia, and previously normal liver function presented with jaundice, skin rash, and fever 2 weeks after taking allopurinol (200 mg/day). In histopathology, a liver biopsy specimen showed mild spotty necrosis of hepatocytes, marked cholestasis in parenchyma, and some granulomas in the portal area. There were vacuolar degeneration in the interlobular bile ducts and ductopenia in the portal tracts. Pathologic criteria strongly suggested the presence of allopurinol-induced granulomatous hepatitis with ductopenia and cholestasis. The patient fully recovered following the early administration of systemic corticosteroid therapy.
Aged ; Allopurinol/*adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Antimetabolites/*adverse effects/therapeutic use ; Bile Duct Diseases/*chemically induced/diagnosis/pathology ; Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic/*drug effects/pathology ; Cholestasis/*chemically induced/diagnosis/pathology ; Drug Eruptions/pathology ; Granuloma/*chemically induced/pathology ; Hepatitis, Toxic/*pathology ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic/complications/drug therapy ; Male

Diagnosis, Differential ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Glomerulonephritis, IGA ; complications ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; drug therapy ; etiology ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Phytotherapy

OBJECTIVEIdiopathic collapsing glomerulopathy (ICG) is a clinically and pathologically distinct variant of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, which is characterized by proteinuria (often nephrotic range) and rapid progression to end-stage renal failure. The typical pathological changes are global/segmental glomerular collapse, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of podocytes and severe tubulointerstitial lesions. Most ICG patients who have been reported in previous published papers are adults. ICG in children is rare. The study aimed to analyze and investigate clinical manifestations, renal histopathological findings, treatment and outcomes of ICG in children.

METHODSData of two cases of ICG, a 7-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, were analyzed. Both of them were Chinese and Han. Clinical characteristics, results of laboratory tests, renal histopathological findings, treatment, outcomes and prognosis of the two children with ICG were retrospectively analyzed. Results were compared with published data.

RESULTSThese two children presented typical clinical features of nephrotic syndrome. The quantity of 24 hr urine protein was 7.6 g/d (0.47 g/kg x d for boy) and 10.67 g/d (0.35 g/kg x d for girl). Both of them had hypertension (blood pressure ranged from 130/90 to 150/110 mmHg) and hypercholesterolemia (15.4 mmol/L for the boy and 11.3 mmol/L for the girl). The serum albumin was 12 g/L for girl and 23 g/L for boy. The creatinine clearance rate gradually decreased from normal range to 30 ml/min for the girl. The histopathological changes in renal biopsy of them were focal segmental or global glomerular collapse, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of podocytes and severe tubulointerstitial lesions. These two cases were steroid-resistant and were treated with pulse intravenous methylprednisolone and pulse intravenous cyclphosphamade in one case, who rapidly progressed to end-stage renal failure and died half a year later. Another one was treated with cyclosporine. He showed continuous hypertention and heavy proteinuria for eight months.

CONCLUSIONICG in the 2 children was a severe disease which presented steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome and rapidly progressive renal failure. The pathological characteristics was global/segmental glomerular collapse, hypertrophy and hyperplasia of podocytes and severe tubulointerstitial lesions. In children with ICG treatment was difficult and the prognosis was poor.

Child ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Glomerulosclerosis, Focal Segmental ; complications ; diagnosis ; pathology ; therapy ; Glucosinolates ; Humans ; Kidney ; pathology ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; etiology ; Kidney Glomerulus ; pathology ; Male ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; etiology ; Proteinuria ; etiology ; Treatment Outcome