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Six episodes of septic arthritis involving 5 patients and eleven joints were documented in the last 7 years in a population receiving 450 patient-years of dialysis treatment. The same micro-organisms were often cultured simultaneously from the joint, blood and/or arteriovenous fistula, suggesting hematogenous spread. A tendency toward multiarticular involvement was also observed. Early diagnosis is mandatory to avoid severe joint damage. Since such patients have other potential causes of arthritis and periarticular pain not due to infection, it is important to culture the joint fluid promptly whenever the possibility of infection exists.

An epidemic of HBsAg positive hepatitis involving the dialysis unit of the Seattle Veterans Administration Medical Center is described. 6 patients and 4 staff members were affected: there were four patient deaths. The source of HBsAg was identified as a chronic in-center peritoneal dialysis patient in whom both serum and peritoneal fluid were persistently HBsAg positive. Surveillance data documented heavy population exposure to HBsAg at the time of this patient's presence in the dialysis setting. We have subsequently identified 2 other patients with HBsAg positive peritoneal effluent. Peritoneal dialysis of HBsAg positive individuals represents a significant risk for the transmission of HBsAg and clinical hepatitis.

Twelve male patients surviving uremia of 9-15 years duration were studied sequentially over a mean period of 9.2 years. Radiographs, bone biopsies, bone mineral mass (BMM) measured by photon absorptiometry, and total body calcium (TBC) determined by in vivo neutron activation analysis (NAA) were used. Pathologic fractures correlated with TBC corrected for height: 4 of 5 patients without fractures had TBC above 80% predicted, whereas 5 of 7 patients with fractures fell below this value. Unlike previous studies, negative calcium balance was seen in 3 patients with prolonged hyperparathyroidism. Though soft tissue calcification occurred in 6 patients, only 1 with massive shoulder calcification had an increase in TBC; this drawback of NAA has been previously overemphasized. Moreover, radial BMM also increased in 2 patients due to soft tissue calcification. When viewed at a single point in time, nearly all patients fell within the wide normal limits of BMM vs TBC. However, 6 patients with variable bone histology studied sequentially over a mean of 8.5 years showed significant preferential loss of radial bone mass compared to TBC. Aluminium retention did not influence calcium balance in these subjects.

21 hypertriglyceridemic hemodialysis patients were treated with 1--2 g/week of clofibrate. The dosage reduction from the usual clofibrate dose of 14 g/week avoided toxicity and corrected the abnormalities in serum triglyceride and high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels to or toward normal.

The records of 151 patients receiving long-term dialysis for an average of 66 months were reviewed to determine the incidence of malignancy. Nine cancers were found among 148 male patients. 8 of these 9 patients were smokers. This finding is significantly higher than expected (3.6 cases, p less than 0.0137) for exposure-specific and age-specific controls of the same sex.