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Acute and especially chronic renal failure (CRF) are relatively common and important risk factor for morbidity and mortality in patients after heart, lung, liver or intestine transplantation. Numerous factors contribute to the development of CRF in this group of patients, like treatment with calcineurin inhibitors and other nephrotoxic drugs in the perioperative period, hemodynamical changes during and after the surgery, preexistent renal disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and anemia. Pretransplant evaluation of renal function is mandatory to predict which patients have increased risk for development of CRF. In the posttransplantation course it is necessary to timely diagnose and treat renal failure, while patients with insufficient renal function have 4.55-fold increased risk of death compared to patients with normal renal function. Special problem is diagnostic approach to patients with suspected chronic renal disease who are candidates for transplantation of other parenhimatose organs. Diagnostic value of serum creatinine and estimation of renal function based on its value is very limited. Gold diagnostic standard is radioisotope estimation of glomerular filtration, but this method is not widely available. It seems that this problem may be solved with the use of cystatin C, but this approach needs to be validated in large studies. Numerous different immunosuppressive drugs available on the market enable individualization of immunosuppression. Different drugs combinations may have less nephrotoxic potential, but one must be careful because of the possible risk of organ rejection with the change of immunosuppression. Use of angiotensin convertase enzyme inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers, statins with drugs for control of hyperglycemia, may prevent or postpone development of CRF. Although technical advances of contemporary hemodialysis machines and peritoneal dialysis equipment enable well tolerated dialysis even in critically ill patients, renal transplantation remains the method of choice for treatment of patients with transplanted parenhimatous organ that developed CRF.

Therapeutic apheresis is a term that describes numerous different procedures that remove pathological substances from the body. They are used in cases when conservative treatment measures fail, and may be useful as an adjuvant method for treatment of different diseases which have a common feature pathogenic protein substance (paraproteins, antibodies...) or pathogenic substance attached to proteins (toxins), that has to be removed from the body. These substances could be removed by nonselective (plasmapheresis and therapeutic plasma exchange), semiselective (cascade apheresis) or selective methods (different adsorption techniques). The best results are achieved by selective methods, while they remove only pathogenic substances (useful substances remain in plasma), do not require replacement fluid, and have significantly less complications. Different methods of therapeutic apheresis achieved good results in treatment of age-related macular degeneration, sudden hearing-loss, dilatative cardiomyopathy, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, hepatic failure, inflammatory bowel diseases, and different neurologic conditions like Guillain-Barre syndrome, multiple sclerosis and myastenia gravis. They are useful in renal transplantation for cases with positive crossmatch or AB0 blood group incompatibility, as well as for treatment of acute humoral rejection. Methods of therapeutic apheresis are save and efficient when performed by experienced personel, trained to prevent, timely recognize and treate possible complications.

Arterial hypertension develops in up to 80% of renal transplant recipients. Uncontrolled hypertension induces left ventricular hypertrophy, heart failure and death, but also promotes deterioration of allograft function. Cadaveric transplantation, delayed graft function, renal artery stenosis, presence of native kidneys, increased body weight and therapy with calcineurin inhibitors and steroids have been associated with an increased incidence of hypertension after kidney transplantation. Cyclosporine increases both systemic and renal vascular resistance, enhances sympathetic activation, endothelin production and, possibly, decreases vascular relaxation by decreasing the generation of nitric oxide. Tacrolimus has less pronounced prohypertensive role after renal transplantation. Corticosteroids contribute to the development of hypertension, since their withdrawal results in a significant decrease of blood pressure in the majority of patients. Renal artery stenosis occurs in almost 12% of hypertensive renal transplant recipients. It is a correctable cause of hypertension, and for this reason should be investigated in all suspected patients. Doppler ultrasonography is used as the screening method that is highly sensitive and specific in the hands of a well-experienced investigator. However, dependence of the method on the experience of the investigator is its major drawback. Magnetic resonance angiography and spinal computed tomography angiography are useful noninvasive methods, but arteriography remains a method for establishing the definitive diagnosis. Percutaneous balloon angioplasty, with or without placement of the stent, is successful in the majority of patients, but with a high incidence of restenoses (20%). Surgery is indicated for stenoses that cannot be treated with angioplasty or that recur. Auto-transplantation of the kidney with complex stenoses of graft arteries is useful in selected cases. Posttransplant hypertension should be aggressively treated to prevent the development of end-organ damage. Every effort should be invested in reducing immunosuppression when appropriate, together with salt restriction and weight reduction. Calcium channel blockers have good antihypertensive properties accompanied with minimization of cyclosporine-induced renal vasoconstriction. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) should be used in patients with proteinuria. Renal function should be carefully monitored after their introduction since they may cause transitory deterioration of glomerular filtration and/or hyperkaliemia. ACEi can induce anemia in renal transplant recipients, side effect that is often used in the treatment of posttransplant erythrocytosis. All other antihypertensive drugs could be used, with minoxidil being the most potent one. Patients with resistant hypertension should be investigated for the presence of renal artery stenosis. After exclusion of rejection, renal artery stenosis and recurrent disease, in cases of severe hypertension, native kidneys laparoscopic nephrectomy should be considered.

Octogenarians represent the fastest growing group of patients on hemodialysis. These patients were previously treated with conservative measures, while they were believed to have too poor prognosis on renal replacement therapy. We investigated clinical characteristics and outcome of patients prospectively after at least 2 years of follow-up. Six male and six female patients who were older than 80 years at the start of hemodialysis were followed up. Their clinical characteristics, comorbidities, etiology of renal disease, nutritional status, complications, vascular access, hospitalizations, compliance and outcome were recorded. The primary renal disease was unknown in 42.8% of patients. All patients had one or more comorbid conditions. Dialysis was initiated in an emergency situation in 64.3%. Vascular access was long-term hemodialysis catheter in 71.4%. Only 14.2% of them received erythropoietin. There were no major bleedings with reduced doses of heparin. The most common complications were catheter-related ones (infections, ruptures). All patients together required seven hospitalizations per year (0.58 per patient). The octogenarians tended to be underdialyzed with the mean adequacy of dialysis (Kt/V) 0.92. The 1-year survival was 71.4%, and 2-year survival was 50%, i.e., they had good survival on hemodialysis. Most of them died from causes that were not related to the uremia. Their treatment requires a careful planning of renal service expansion while more octogenarians who need renal replacement treatment may be expected.

Anemia associated with chronic renal disease remains a major concern for nephrologists as it significantly increases the morbidity and mortality in this patient group. The introduction of erythropoietin has dramatically changed the treatment of anemia in uremic patients. However, some patients showed hyporesponsiveness to erythropoietin because of inadequate iron supply to the erythroid bone marrow. Patients undergoing chronic intermittent hemodialysis are especially vulnerable to iron deficiency due to blood loss during the hemodiaylsis sessions, gastrointestinal bleeding and compromised gastrointestinal absorption. Demand for iron is also increased by the treatment for anemia with erythropoietin. Intravenous administration is more effective than oral iron supplemantation in renal failure patients. Some studies have raised concerns of the potential serious side effects associated with intravenous iron administration. Besides anaphylactic reactions that were reported to occur in less than 1% of patients treated with iron dextran and have not been associated with other iron formulations, concerns about the long-term use of iron include the increased risk of infections and oxidative stress with consequent cardiovascular disease. Therapy with dextran-free iron formulations is an essential part of anemia treatment protocols, and was not found to be associated with either short- or long-term serious side effects.

Up to 90% of chronic haemodialysis patients have blood preasure (BP) greater than 140/90 mmHg. This suggests that only a minor number of the haemodialysis patients have adequate BP control. This is associated with significantly increased morbidity and mortality in haemodialysis population when compared with normal, healthy population. The main aim of antihypertensive treatment in hypertensive haemodialysis patients is to achieve BP values which should not differ from those recommended for general population. The most important factor in BP regulation in haemodialysis patients is adequate fluid volume regulation. Sympathetic nervous system and impaired vasodilatation with consequent changes in peripheral vascular resistance, secondary hyperparathyreoidism and its effects on calcium balance and consequent effects on cotractility of the smooth muscle cells of the vessel wall, correction of renal anemia in patients receiving human recombinant erythropoietin, regulation of salt intake, and frequency and duration of haemodialysis procedure have also a significant role in BP regulation in these patients. If dialysis procedure is not adequate, meaning that salt and water balance is not satisfyng, antihypertensive medications cannot alone control BP in haemodialysis patients.

Anderson-Fabry disease is a rare inherited X-linked lysosomal storage disease caused by deficiency of the enzyme alpha-galactosidase A. The deficiency of alpha-galactosidase activity leads to progressive, abnormal accumulation of neutral glycosphingolipids in the lysosome. With increasing age globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) progressively accumulates in different cells, tissues and organs throughout the body. The overall prevalence of Anderson-Fabry disease is 1:117.00 or 1: 40.000 in (male) population. Typically, the clinical onset of Anderson-Fabry disease occurs during childhood or adolescence, with early symptoms of neuropathic pain (recurrent episodes of severe pain in the extremities), angiokeratomas (characteristic cutaneous lesions), oedematous upper eyelids, peripheral vasospasm and ophthalmological abnormalities. The disease progresses through adulthood and by the age of 30-40 years several major organ systems may be affected; cardiac disease, renal insufficiency, cerebrovascular attacks and neurologic findings are common. Death usually occur secondary to renal, cardiac or cerebrovascular complications during the fourth or fifth decade of life. Enzyme replacement therapy is a major advance in the treatment of rare diseases. In 2001 two formulations have been approved by the European Medical Evaluation Agency, agalsidase alpha and agalsidase beta. Agalsidase alpha is produced on the human fibroblast cell line, and agalsidase beta from the Chinese hamster ovary cell line.

Racial and ethnic disparities exist in access to kidney transplantation worldwide. The Roma people are often socially deprived, uneducated, and unemployed. We investigated all dialysis centers in Croatia to determine number of Roma people on dialysis as well as their access and reasons for eventual failure to enter the waiting list. There are 9463 registered Roma people in Croatia, however, the estimated number reaches 40,000. Twenty-five Roma patients required renal replacement therapy, giving a prevalence of 830 per million people (pmp), compared with 959 pmp among the general population. Average age at the start of dialysis was 29 vs 67 years; waiting time to kidney transplantation was 48.9 vs 53.5 months; mean age at the time of transplantation was 33.18 vs 48.01 years in Roma versus the general population respectively. One patient received a kidney allograft from a living unrelated spousal donor, and all others from deceased individuals. Patients were followed for 51.5 months (range, 6–240). The most frequent post-transplant complications were urinary tract infections. One patient lost a graft due to severe acute rejection caused by noncompliance. Two young patients were also noncompliant with immunosuppressive medications. One patient died with a functioning graft at 20 years after transplantation due to cardiovascular disease. Among 14 Roma patients currently been treated with hemodialysis in Croatia, 10 are old with clinical contraindications for transplantation; 1 is on the waiting list; 1 left hospitalization for pretransplant evaluation twice; 1 refused evaluation; and 1 is currently being evaluated for the waiting list. The Roma people have excellent access to renal transplantation in Croatia. Many of them refuse evaluation. More efforts should be invested in their education to improve compliance and their post-transplant outcomes.