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Objective To provide insights into the nature, risk factors, impact and existing measures for reporting and preventing violence in the healthcare system. The under-reporting of violence against healthcare workers (HCWs) globally highlights the need for increased public awareness and education.Methods The Violence Study of Healthcare Workers and Systems study used a survey questionnaire created using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) forms and distributed from 6 June to 9 August 2022. Logistic regression analysis evaluated violence predictors, including gender, age, years of experience, institution type, respondent profession and night shift frequency. A χ2 test was performed to determine the association between gender and different violence forms.Results A total of 5405 responses from 79 countries were analysed. India, the USA and Venezuela were the top three contributors. Female respondents comprised 53%. The majority (45%) fell within the 26–35 age group. Medical students (21%), consultants (20%), residents/fellows (15%) and nurses (10%) constituted highest responders. Nearly 55% HCWs reported firsthand violence experience, and 16% reported violence against their colleagues. Perpetrators were identified as patients or family members in over 50% of cases, while supervisor-incited violence accounted for 16%. Around 80% stated that violence incidence either remained constant or increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among HCWs who experienced violence, 55% felt less motivated or more dissatisfied with their jobs afterward, and 25% expressed willingness to quit. Univariate analysis revealed that HCWs aged 26–65 years, nurses, physicians, ancillary staff, those working in public settings, with >1 year of experience, and frequent night shift workers were at significantly higher risk of experiencing violence. These results remained significant in multivariate analysis, except for the 55–65 age group, which lost statistical significance.Conclusion This global cross-sectional study highlights that a majority of HCWs have experienced violence, and the incidence either increased or remained the same during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has resulted in decreased job satisfaction.

Angelika Bielach-Bazyluk,1 Edyta Zbroch,2 Katarzyna Czajkowska,1 Ewa Koc-Zorawska,1 Katarzyna Kakareko,1 Alicja Rydzewska-Rosolowska,1 Tomasz Hryszko1 1 2nd Department of Nephrology and Hypertension with Dialysis Centre, Medical University, Bialystok, Poland; 2Department of Internal Medicine and Hypertension, Medical University, Bialystok, PolandCorrespondence: Angelika Bielach-Bazyluk 2nd Department of Nephrology and Hypertension with Dialysis Centre, Medical University, Sklodowskiej – Curie 24a, Bialystok, 15-276, PolandTel +48 858317872Email b.angelika@wp.plBackground: Sirtuin 1 is involved in the pathogenesis of age-related diseases.Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the clinical and diagnostic value of serum sirtuin 1 concentration in patients with CKD.Patients and Methods: The serum sirtuin 1 level was evaluated using ELISA kit in 100 CKD patients stratified for five stages and in a control group of 24 healthy volunteers.Results: Serum sirtuin 1 concentration was higher in the CKD group compared with the control group (p< 0.05). Sirtuin 1 correlated with conventional CKD biomarkers and eGFR equations, intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) and age (all p< 0.05). Statins, AT1 receptor antagonists and β-blockers use were associated with decreased sirtuin concentration (p< 0.05). Sirtuin 1 was able to distinguish CKD from control group with high sensitivity and specificity (93% and 87%, respectively; AUC=0.954). Surprisingly, after adjustment only iPTH concentration was an independent predictor of sirtuin 1 level.Conclusion: The association between sirtuin 1, eGFR equations and iPTH indicates its possible usefulness as a kidney function marker. In terms of iPTH being the only independent predictor of circulating sirtuin 1 it can be considered as an indirect cardiovascular risk biomarker regardless of renal function and provide additional information for patient management. Alternatively, sirtuin 1 is recognized as protective against vascular disease, and we demonstrated a positive correlation with iPTH, which may be related to accumulation of (7-84)-PTH having opposite biological effects to full-length PTH. Further studies are needed to explore the interplay between sirtuin 1, PTH and CKD-related vascular calcification as well as to assess its prognostic value in observational studies.Keywords: sirtuin 1, SIRT1, CKD, chronic kidney disease, parathyroid hormone, PTH

Edyta Zbroch, 1 Angelika Bazyluk, 1 Jolanta Malyszko, 2 Ewa Koc-Zorawska, 1 Alicja Rydzewska-Rosolowska, 1 Katarzyna Kakareko, 1 Tomasz Hryszko 1 1 2-nd Department of Nephrology and Hypertension with Dialysis Centre, Medical University, Bialystok, Poland; 2Department of Nephrology, Dialysis and Internal Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, PolandCorrespondence: Edyta Zbroch 2-nd Department of Nephrology and Hypertension with Dialysis Unit, Medical University, Sklodowskiej Curie 24a, Bialystok 15-276, PolandTel +48 85 8317872 Email edzbroch@poczta.onet.plIntroduction: Sirtuin1 (SIRT1) acts as an anti-aging protein due to anti-apoptotic, anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effect and is implicated in several diseases including diabetes or cardiovascular problems. SIRT1 renal overexpression indicates oxidative stress. Similarly, αKlotho was primarily exposed as anti-aging factor. It is primary produced in kidney. It’s deficiency is associated with progression of chronic kidney disease and heart disorders.Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the serum concentration of sirtuin1 and αKlotho in hemodialysis (HD) patients compared to healthy volunteers in regard to age, blood pressure control, residual kidney function (RKF), diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dialysis vintage and type of dialyzer.Patients and Methods: The serum level of SIRT1 and αKlotho was evaluated using ELISA tests in 103 HD patients, median age 67 years and in 21 volunteers. Blood pressure, RRF, echocardiography and dialysis parameters were assessed. HD group was divided according to the presence/absence of RKF.Results: The serum SIRT1 level was higher (28.4 vs 2.71ng/mL, p< 0.0001) and αKlotho was lower (433.9 vs 756.6pg/mL, p< 0.0001) in HD then in control group. αKlotho was lower in those without RKF (387.2 vs 486.2pg/mL, p=0.028). SIRT1 positively correlated with hemodialysis vintage. αKlotho negatively correlated with left ventricular posterior wall thickness. There was no significant relationship between SIRT1 and αKlotho level and age, blood pressure control, type of dialyzer, Kt/V and diabetes. Multivariate analysis revealed association of SIRT1 with ejection fraction (B − 0.72; p=0.32).Conclusion: Elevated SIRT1 and lower αKlotho concentration are associated with impaired kidney function. The decrease in levels of αKlotho may also indicate heart hypertrophy in hemodialysis patients. The role of anti-aging proteins, particularly SIRT1 as biomarkers/predictors of oxidative stress, inflammation and cardiovascular diseases need further examination.Keywords: sirtuin1, αKlotho, chronic kidney disease, hemodialysis

Skin, as the outermost organ of the body, is constantly exposed to both intrinsic and extrinsic causative factors of aging. Intrinsic aging is related to compromised cellular proliferative capacity, and may be accelerated by harmful environmental influences with the greatest significance of ultraviolet radiation exposure, contributing not only to premature aging, but also to skin carcinogenesis. The overall skin cancer burden and steadily increasing global antiaging market provide an incentive for searching novel targets to improve skin resistance against external injury. Sirtuin 1, initially linked to extension of yeast and rodent lifespan, plays a key role in epigenetic modification of proteins, histones, and chromatin by which regulates the expression of genes implicated in the oxidative stress response and apoptosis. The spectrum of cellular pathways regulated by sirtuin 1 suggests its beneficial impact on skin aging. However, the data on its role in carcinogenesis remains controversial. The aim of this review was to discuss the relevance of sirtuin 1 in skin aging, in the context of intrinsic factors, related to genetic premature aging syndromes, as well as extrinsic modifiable ones, with the assessment of its future application. PubMed were searched from inception to 4 January 2021 for relevant papers with further search carried out on ClinicalTrials.gov. The systematic review included 46 eligible original articles. The evidence from numerous studies proves sirtuin 1 significance in both chronological and premature aging as well as its dual role in cancer development. Several botanical compounds hold the potential to improve skin aging symptoms.

COVID-19 has severely affected the population of patients with end stage renal disease. Current data have proved a two-dose vaccination schedule against SARS-CoV-2 to be effective among dialyzed patients. There are limited data on the longevity and modulating factors of humoral response after vaccination. We performed a prospective longitudinal cohort study to determine longevity of the humoral response after SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The study included 191 adult patients on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. All participants had been vaccinated with three doses, either with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) (n = 109) or mRNA-1273 (Moderna) (n = 82). Anti-spike protein receptor-binding domain antibodies (anti-S IgG) were assessed using SARS-CoV-2 (RBD) IgG ELISA EIA-6150 IVD assay at baseline, on the 21st day and 43rd day, before a booster dose and two weeks thereafter. We found that before vaccination, 37.7% of the cohort had anti-S IgG titres concordant with seroconversion. After two-dose vaccination, seroconversion occurred in 97% of patients. The booster dose evoked a ~12-fold increase in antibody level. Obesity increased more than two-fold the odds for a decrease in anti-S IgG. Previous COVID-19 infection enhanced longevity of the humoral response following vaccination. In patients with previous COVID-19 infection, the BNT162b2 vaccine was associated with a higher odds of anti-S IgG waning compared to the mRNA-1273 vaccine. In conclusion, we report that obesity predisposes patients to protective antibody waning, hybrid immunity enhances odds for higher anti-S IgG concentrations and vaccine efficacy may be influenced by previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. The results might provide a rationale for vaccination protocol design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim of the study: The aim of our review is to indicate and discuss the impact of cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, lipid profile, hypertension and smoking on the course and mortality of COVID-19 infection. Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is spreading around the world and becoming a major public health crisis. All coronaviruses are known to affect the cardiovascular system. There is a strong correlation between cardiovascular risk factors and severe clinical complications, including death in COVID-19 patients. All the above-mentioned risk factors are widespread and constitute a significant worldwide health problem. Some of them are modifiable and the awareness of their connection with the COVID-19 progress may have a crucial impact on the current and possible upcoming infection. Data collection: We searched for research papers describing the impact of selected cardiovascular risk factors on the course, severity, complications and mortality of COVID-19 infection form PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Using terms, for example: "COVID-19 cardiovascular disease mortality", "COVID-19 hypertension/diabetes mellitus/obesity/dyslipidemia", "cardiovascular risk factors COVID-19 mortality" and other related terms listed in each subtitle. The publications were selected according to the time of their publications between January 2020 and December 2021. From the PubMed database we obtain 1552 results. Further studies were sought by manually searching reference lists of the relevant articles. Relevant articles were selected based on their title, abstract or full text. Articles were excluded if they were clearly related to another subject matter or were not published in English. The types of articles are mainly randomized controlled trial and systematic review. An additional criterion used by researchers was co-morbidities and age of patients in study groups. From a review of the publications, 105 of them were selected for this work with all subheadings included. Findings and Results: The intention of this review was to summarize current knowledge about comorbidities and development of COVID-19 infection. We tried to focus on the course and mortality of the abovementioned virus disease in patients with concomitant CV risk factors. Unfortunately, we were unable to assess the quality of data in screened papers and studies we choose because of the heterogenicity of the groups. The conducted studies had different endpoints and included different groups of patients in terms of nationality, age, race and clinical status. We decide to divide the main subjects of the research into separately described subtitles such as obesity, lipid profile, hypertension, diabetes, smoking. We believe that the studies we included and gathered are very interesting and show modern and present-day clinical data and approaches to COVID-19 infection in specific divisions of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deterioration of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is associated with alterations of bone metabolism. It translates clinically to bone fragility and increased fractures rate among patients with impaired GFR. Recently, sclerostin (SCL) gained much attention as an important factor in pathogenesis of mineral and bone disturbances in patients with renal diseases. There is no data about SCL behaviour in patients with acute GFR decline. The aim of this study was to evaluate the renal handling of SCL. This is a prospective, single-centre observational study in patients undergoing nephrectomy due to urological indications. Serum and urinary SCL levels were measured prior and after nephrectomy. 25 patients were enrolled. After surgery, eGFR significantly declined (from 87.4 ± 19.7 to 67.7 ± 25.7 ml/min/1.73 m², p < 0.0001). Nephrectomy caused more than 20 times higher renal fractional excretion of SCL [0.15 (interquartile range, IQR 0.09-0.40) vs. 2.78 (IQR 1.51-4.02) %, p < 0.001], while its serum level remained intact [0.69 (IQR 0.57-0.90 vs. 0.65 (IQR 0.53-0.88) ng/ml, p = 0.4]. The magnitude of eGFR reduction was associated inversely with change in urinary SCL fractional excretion (r = -0.6, p = 0.001) and with alteration in serum SCL level (r = -0.5, p = 0.01). Our results suggest that increased serum SCL concentrations at moderately reduced GFR are not due to diminished renal clearance. At more severely decreased GFR, elevated SCL concentration results from both increased production and reduced renal elimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-23 inhibits PTH production. Elevated FGF-23 and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels are characteristic of hemodialyzed patients. Iron polymaltose was shown to increase FGF-23 concentration. The effect of intravenous low molecular weight iron dextran (LMID) on these hormones and bone metabolism has not been studied in hemodialysis (HD). Twelve HD patients were prospectively followed up for 3 weeks after a single infusion of LMID. Calcium, phosphate, FGF-23, PTH, degradation products of C-terminal telopeptides of type I collagen (CTX) and procollagen I N-terminal propeptide (PINP) were measured prior to, and at week 1 and week 3 after the LMID administration. FGF-23 increased significantly from 453.4 (68.6-3971.5) pg/mL at baseline to 971.8 (779.5-3361.4) pg/mL ( P = 0.001) at week 1 and started to decrease toward the initial value at week 3. The changes were accompanied by a significant decline in PTH from 367.6 (21.4-1487.4) pg/mL at baseline to 315.7 (16.4-1339.8) pg/mL ( P = 0.018) at week 1 and subsequently began to increase toward the initial values. Phosphate, calcium, CTX and PINP did not change over the study course. LMID causes an increase in FGF-23 concentration together with a decrease in PTH. Our study highlights a pathophysiological element, which may connect suppression of parathyroid glands with intravenous iron supplementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Endostatin (ES) is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis and neoangiogenesis, and interestingly its activity is modified by heparin. To understand if low-molecular weight heparins have different clinical profiles regarding this cytokine, we studied the effects of enoxaparin, nadroparin and dalteparin administered for hemodialysis (HD) anticoagulation on plasma ES levels. Material and Methods: Seventeen chronic HD patients completed this prospective, crossover trial. They were randomized into 6 groups each patient was administered enoxaparin (effective dose of 0.75 mg/kg), nadroparin (70.4 IU/kg) and dalteparin (78.6 IU/kg) in 3 time periods of 2 months each. At the end of each period plasma levels of ES were measured at the start and at 10 rain and 180 min of the HD procedure. Results: Mean predialysis plasma ES levels in HD patients were extremely high for all three heparins used. We observed no changes in ES levels during dialysis, there were also no differences in ES profiles for each of the low-molecular weight heparins used. Conclusions: Plasma ES levels are unusually high in chronic HD patients and the significance of this fact needs future research. ES levels do not change after heparin administration and at least in that aspect enoxaparin, nadroparin and dalteparin are equal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a case of a 53‐year‐old woman with end‐stage renal disease, on hemodialysis for 4 years, who was diagnosed with an infected catheter‐associated right atrial thrombus (CRAT). CRAT is an underreported and potentially life‐threating complication of a central venous catheter and usually warrants a surgical approach. The patient was, however, disqualified by cardiac surgeons due to her overall poor condition. We used a combination of anticoagulation and antibiotics in the reported case as "rescue therapy" and showed that the successful resolution of CRAT complicated by infection might sometimes be feasible with pharmacological treatment only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin, as the outermost organ of the body, is constantly exposed to both intrinsic and extrinsic causative factors of aging. Intrinsic aging is related to compromised cellular proliferative capacity, and may be accelerated by harmful environmental influences with the greatest significance of ultraviolet radiation exposure, contributing not only to premature aging, but also to skin carcinogenesis. The overall skin cancer burden and steadily increasing global antiaging market provide an incentive for searching novel targets to improve skin resistance against external injury. Sirtuin 1, initially linked to extension of yeast and rodent lifespan, plays a key role in epigenetic modification of proteins, histones, and chromatin by which regulates the expression of genes implicated in the oxidative stress response and apoptosis. The spectrum of cellular pathways regulated by sirtuin 1 suggests its beneficial impact on skin aging. However, the data on its role in carcinogenesis remains controversial. The aim of this review was to discuss the relevance of sirtuin 1 in skin aging, in the context of intrinsic factors, related to genetic premature aging syndromes, as well as extrinsic modifiable ones, with the assessment of its future application. PubMed were searched from inception to 4 January 2021 for relevant papers with further search carried out on ClinicalTrials.gov. The systematic review included 46 eligible original articles. The evidence from numerous studies proves sirtuin 1 significance in both chronological and premature aging as well as its dual role in cancer development. Several botanical compounds hold the potential to improve skin aging symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease and concomitant chronic kidney disease among the aging populations is responsible for considerable growth of mortality. Additionally, frequent, prolonged hospitalizations and long-term treatment generates progressive decline in bodily functions as well as substantial public health and economic burden. Accessibility to easy, non-invasive prognostic markers able to detect patients at risk of cardiovascular events may improve effective therapy and mitigate disease progression. Moreover, an early diagnosis allows time for implementation of prophylactic and educational programs that may result in decreased morbidity, improved quality of life and reduced public health expenditure. One of the promising candidates for a novel cardiovascular biomarker is mid-regional proadrenomedullin, a derivative of adrenomedullin. Adrenomedullin is a peptide hormone known for its vasodilatory, antioxidant, antiapoptotic and antifibrotic effects. A remarkable advantage of mid-regional proadrenomedullin is its longer half-life which is a prerequisite for plasma measurements. These review aims to discuss the importance of mid-regional proadrenomedullin with reference to its usefulness as a biomarker of increased cardiovascular risk and kidney disease progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the medical case of a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus (ESL) who developed staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome (SSSS) in the course of lupus nephritis treatment. The case involves a 21 year-old woman who was admitted to the Department of Nephrology and Transplantation due to sudden onset of high-grade fever and a generalized erythematous rash. The SSSS is a rare life-threatening disorder and it is a type of toxin mediated exfoliative dermatitis.

A letter about abnormal serum protein electrohoresis in haemodialysed patients is presented. Particular focus is given to the case of a 77-year-old man with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) secondary to urolithiasis and a 51-year-old woman with ESRD due to autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (APKD). Results of physical examination and laboratory analyses are given. It notes that both cases suggest inadequacy of SPE in detecting paraproteins when systemic anticoagulation caused by leakage of heparin occurs.