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Background and objectives: In patients with kidney failure due to IgA nephropathy, IgA deposits can recur in a subsequent kidney transplant. The incidence, effect, and risk factors of IgA nephropathy recurrence is unclear, because most studies have been single center and sample sizes are relatively small.Design, setting, participants, & measurements: We performed a multicenter, international, retrospective study to determine the incidence, risk factors, and treatment response of recurrent IgA nephropathy after kidney transplantation. Data were collected from all consecutive patients with biopsy-proven IgA nephropathy transplanted between 2005 and 2015, across 16 “The Post-Transplant Glomerular Disease” study centers in Europe, North America, and South America.Results: Out of 504 transplant recipients with IgA nephropathy, recurrent IgA deposits were identified by kidney biopsy in 82 patients; cumulative incidence of recurrence was 23% at 15 years (95% confidence interval, 14 to 34). Multivariable Cox regression revealed a higher risk for recurrence of IgA deposits in patients with a pre-emptive kidney transplant (hazard ratio, 3.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.31 to 9.17) and in patients with preformed donorspecific antibodies (hazardratio, 2.59; 95%confidence interval, 1.09 to 6.19).Afterkidneytransplantation,development of de novo donor-specific antibodies was associated with subsequent higher risk of recurrence of IgA nephropathy (hazard ratio, 6.65; 95% confidence interval, 3.33 to 13.27). Immunosuppressive regimen was not associated with recurrent IgA nephropathy in multivariable analysis, including steroid use. Graft loss was higher in patients with recurrence of IgA nephropathy compared with patients without (hazard ratio, 3.69; 95% confidence interval, 2.04 to 6.66), resulting in 32% (95% confidence interval, 50 to 82) graft loss at 8 years after diagnosis of recurrence.Conclusions: In our international cohort, cumulative risk of IgA nephropathy recurrence increased after transplant and was associated with a 3.7-fold greater risk of graft loss.

To demonstrate feasibility of acute peritoneal dialysis (PD) for acute kidney injury during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we performed a multicenter, retrospective, observational study of 94 patients who received acute PD in New York City in the spring of 2020. Patient comorbidities, severity of disease, laboratory values, kidney replacement therapy, and patient outcomes were recorded. The mean age was 61 ± 11 years; 34% were women; 94% had confirmed COVID-19; 32% required mechanical ventilation on admission. Compared to the levels prior to initiation of kidney replacement therapy, the mean serum potassium level decreased from 5.1 ± 0.9 to 4.5 ± 0.7 mEq/L on PD day 3 and 4.2 ± 0.6 mEq/L on day 7 (P 0.001 for both); mean serum bicarbonate increased from 20 ± 4 to 21 ± 4 mEq/L on PD day 3 (P = 0.002) and 24 ± 4 mEq/L on day 7 (P 0.001). After a median follow-up of 30 days, 46% of patients died and 22% had renal recovery. Male sex and mechanical ventilation on admission were significant predictors of mortality. The rapid implementation of an acute PD program was feasible despite resource constraints and can be lifesaving during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common finding in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and has been associated with higher rates of death when compared to COVID-19 patients without kidney injury. Whereas the definitive pathogenesis of COVID-19-related AKI (CoV-AKI) is not clear, histopathologic evidence seems to point at multiple etiologies for the disease, including indirect and direct viral kidney injury. The high incidence of CoV-AKI, along with the aggressive clinical presentation of this entity, have increased the demands for kidney replacement therapies, rapidly overwhelming the supplies of healthcare systems even in major tertiary care centers. As a result, nephrologists have come up with alternatives to maximize the efficiency of treatments and have developed non-conventional therapeutic alternatives such as the implementation of acute peritoneal dialysis for critically ill patients. The long-term implications of CoV-AKI are yet unknown, though early studies suggest that around one third of the patients who survive will remain dependent on kidney replacement therapy. Nephrologists and healthcare workers need to be familiar with the clinical presentation and therapeutic challenges of CoV-AKI in order to develop strategies to mitigate the burden of the disease for patients, and for services providing kidney replacement therapies.

As I hit the snooze button on my alarm at 6:00 am, I was wide awake. Anxiously, I refreshed the “COVID stats” website in my bookmarks to check the number of new cases and deaths that COVID-19 had claimed in the past 24 hours. This became a grim routine: I started my day keeping track of statistics and going to bed hoping that the next day those numbers would take a turn. In retrospect, the few months prior to March 2020 felt like watching a tsunami in slow motion before it made landfall in New York City. From a couple dozen cases in the Far East to thousands of cases in Europe, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) swept across the globe, quickly making headlines as it gained momentum and was deemed a pandemic. Faced with one of the greatest health crises since the Spanish flu in 1918, health care providers and hospital systems were forced to adapt to the new challenges inherent to the pandemic. In a fortnight, the hospital layout was practically unrecognizable, with new makeshift rooms constructed in every available space to accommodate the massive patient influx. Days seemed to blend into nights as house staff battled challenges of dealing with a dangerous new disease entity as they worked long hours draped in personal protective equipment, which was being rationed. As nephrology fellows in a major tertiary care center in New York City, our training, let alone our lives, have forever been altered by this crisis. As we reflect on the experiences and challenges during these past months, the storm seems to have washed over our city but is nowhere near dissipated from the world. As we braced for the infiltration of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 into our community, we grappled for data from affected countries …