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How can we predict the occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in cancer patients based on machine learning with serum creatinine data? Given irregular and heterogeneous clinical data, how can we make the most of it for accurate AKI prediction? AKI is a common and significant complication in cancer patients, and correlates with substantial morbidity and mortality. Since no effective treatment for AKI still exists, it is important to take timely preventive measures. While several approaches have been proposed for predicting AKI, their scope and applicability are limited as they either assume regular data measured over a short hospital stay, or do not fully utilize heterogeneous data. In this paper, we provide an AKI prediction model with a greater applicability, which relaxes the constraints of existing approaches, and fully utilizes irregular and heterogeneous data for learning the model. In a cohort of 21,022 cancer patients who were registered into Korea Central Cancer Registry (KCCR) in Seoul National University Hospital between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2013, our method achieves 0.7892 precision, 0.7506 recall, and 0.7576 F-measure in predicting whether a patient will develop AKI during the next 14 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Interventional diagnostic and therapeutic procedures requiring intravascular iodinated contrast steadily increase patient exposure to the risks of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CIAKI), which is associated with death, nonfatal cardiovascular events, and prolonged hospitalization. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for CIAKI prevention in patients undergoing cardiovascular invasive procedures with iodinated contrast. Methods and findings: MEDLINE, Google Scholar, EMBASE and Cochrane databases as well as abstracts and presentations from major cardiovascular and nephrology meetings were searched, up to 22 April 2016. Eligible studies were randomized trials comparing strategies to prevent CIAKI (alone or in combination) when added to saline versus each other, saline, placebo, or no treatment in patients undergoing cardiovascular invasive procedures with administration of iodinated contrast. Two reviewers independently extracted trial-level data including number of patients, duration of follow-up, and outcomes. Eighteen strategies aimed at CIAKI prevention were identified. The primary outcome was the occurrence of CIAKI. Secondary outcomes were mortality, myocardial infarction, dialysis and heart failure. The data were pooled using network meta-analysis. Treatment estimates were calculated as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% credible intervals (CrI). 147 RCTs involving 33,463 patients were eligible. Saline plus N-acetylcysteine (OR 0.72, 95%CrI 0.57–0.88), ascorbic acid (0.59, 0.34–0.95), sodium bicarbonate plus N-acetylcysteine (0.59, 0.36–0.89), probucol (0.42, 0.15–0.91), methylxanthines (0.39, 0.20–0.66), statin (0.36, 0.21–0.59), device-guided matched hydration (0.35, 0.12–0.79), prostaglandins (0.26, 0.08–0.62) and trimetazidine (0.26, 0.09–0.59) were associated with lower odds of CIAKI compared to saline. Methylxanthines (0.12, 0.01–0.94) or left ventricular end-diastolic pressure-guided hydration (0.09, 0.01–0.59) were associated with lower mortality compared to saline. Conclusions: Currently recommended treatment with saline as the only measure to prevent CIAKI during cardiovascular procedures may not represent the optimal strategy. Vasodilators, when added to saline, may significantly reduce the odds of CIAKI following cardiovascular procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To prospectively investigate and detect early cerebral regional homogeneity (ReHo) changes in neurologically asymptomatic patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) using in vivo resting-state functional MR imaging (Rs-fMRI). Methods: We enrolled 20 patients (15 men, 5 women; meanage, 37.1 years; range, 19–49 years) with ESRD and 20 healthy controls (15 men, 5 women; mean age, 38.3 years; range, 28–49 years). The mean duration of hemodialysis for the patient group was 10.7±6.4 monthes. There was no significant sex or age difference between the ESRD and control groups. Rs-fMRI was performed using a gradient-echo echo-planar imaging sequence. ReHo was calculated using software (DPARSF). Voxel-based analysis of the ReHo maps between ESRD and control groups was performed with a two-samples t test. Statistical maps were set at P value less than 0.05 and were corrected for multiple comparisons. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was administered to all participants at imaging. Results: ReHo values were increased in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus and left medial frontal gyrus in the ERSD group compared with controls, but a significantly decreased ReHo value was found in the right middle temporal gyrus. There was no significant correlation between ReHo values and the duration of hemodialysis in the ESRD group. Both the patients and control subjects had normal MMSE scores (≥28). Conclusions: Our finding revealed that abnormal brain activity was distributed mainly in the memory and cognition related cotices in patients with ESRD. The abnormal spontaneous neuronal activity in those areas provide information on the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment in patients with ESRD, and demonstrate that Rs-fMRI with ReHo analysis is a useful non-invasive imaging tool for the detection of early cerebral ReHo changes in hemodialysis patients with ESRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]