Search

Pruritus is a common and bothersome problem in 30-50% of hemodialysis patients. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of gabapentin, 100 mg/three times a week (after each hemodialysis session), on uremic pruritus.Patients older than 18 years who had undergone hemodialysis for more than three months were enrolled in this double-blind clinical trial. They had experienced pruritus refractory to antihistamines for at least two weeks. The patients were assigned to receive gabapentin 100 mg following hemodialysis for a period of four weeks, and after a washout week, they received the placebo for another four weeks. They were asked to evaluate the severity of their pruritus using a visual analogue scale (VAS). The reduction of pruritusor= 50% was accepted as the response.The mean pruritus score reached 6.44 +/- 8.4 (p0.0001), 15 +/- 11.2 (p0.001), and 81.11 +/- 11.07 (p0.001) during gabapentin, washout, and placebo periods, respectively. No significant correlation was found between age, sex, duration of dialysis, underlying diseases, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures and the gabapentin effect.Gabapentin is an effective agent in treating uremic pruritus.

Renal involvement in type 2 diabetes is mostly due to diabetic nephropathy (DN), but a subset of diabetic patients could present with pure non-diabetic renal disease (NDRD) or NDRD superimposed on DN. We conducted a prospective cohort study to identify the underline renal pathology in type 2 diabetic patients with defined clinical criteria for renal biopsy.A total of 46 patients (27 female, mean age of 48.9 ± 11.9 years) with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and atypical features of DN with unexpected proteinuria, hematuria, and/or renal impairment were enrolled in this study.Of 46 patients with type 2 diabetes, 16 (34.8%) had DN, 20 (43.5%) had NDRD, and 10 (21.7%) had NDRD superimposed on DN. Membranous nephropathy (34%) was the most common NDRD. Patients with NDRD had a lower frequency of diabetic retinopathy (5%), shorter duration of diabetes, higher range of proteinuria, and better kidney survival. In multiple logistic regression analysis, only lack of diabetic retinopathy was independent predictor of NDRD. Positive and negative predictive value of diabetic retinopathy (DR) for diabetic nephropathy was 94 and 68%, respectively.Kidney biopsy is strongly recommended for patients with type 2 diabetes and atypical renal presentation for DN, particularly in the absence of DR. This approach could lead to diagnosis of NDRD with better renal survival.

Associations between patient survival and baseline urine volume (UV), ultrafiltration (UF) volume, and combined UV and UF were evaluated in Iranian continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients.From 1995 to 2006, data on 1472 CAPD patients from 26 centers were collected. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics were analyzed using STATA software. Baseline UV was considered as an indicator of residual renal function and patients with an annual decrease of more than 250 cc/day were placed in decreasing UV group. The role of a new variable, net positive fluid removal, which defines as the combination of baseline UV and UF, was also evaluated.Patients with higher baseline UV were significantly more married and educated and candidate for CAPD based on positive selection criteria. In dichotomous categorization, mean of serum creatinine was lower and albumin was higher in patients with UV ≥ 1000 cc/day compared with UV250 cc/day. A significant correlation was found between baseline UV250 cc/day and ≥1000 cc/day and patient survival. Patients with stable UV had better survival compared with patients with decreasing UV (p = 0.04). There was no correlation between UF and patient survival. Remarkable association with patient and technique survival and net positive fluid removal ≥2000 cc/day and500 cc/day was observed. Multiple Cox regression analysis revealed significant correlation between net positive fluid removal ≥2000 cc/day and higher patient survival [p = 0.01, hazard ratio (HR) = 13.2], higher first albumin (albumin ≥ 3.5 mg/dL, p = 0.01, HR = 0.02), and lower negative selection (p = 0.0001, HR = 11.8).Loss of UV over time and lower net positive fluid removal increase mortality of PD patients.