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Background: Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) undergo a transition of care between their primary nephrologist and the transplant center during evaluation for kidney transplantation. Due to medical complexity, high hospitalization rate, and involvement of multiple medical stakeholders, transitions of medical care among patients with ESRD are likely to be associated with suboptimal care and medical errors. Provider-to-provider communication improves outcomes among ESRD patients transitioning between dialysis and transplant. There is little data analyzing proper transition of care between the nephrologist and the transplant center (TC). Objective: Using survey methodology, we examined nephrologists' current practice and experience regarding patient-related communication with the TC. Methods: From among 822 nephrologists who were following at least 20 ESRD patients, we randomly selected 252 nephrologists to participate in the study. The survey consisted of 102 multiple choice and Likert-style items probing perceptions about various aspects of transplant, including communication between TC and nephrologist. Responses from 216 participants who submitted complete responses were included in the final analysis. Results: Depending on the phase of transplant, nephrologist-TC communication varied between 50%- 81% of nephrologists. Factors associated with higher likelihood of nephrologist-TC communication included attending transplant-related educational activity, practicing in a group with more than 5 nephrologists, and having more than 50 patients on dialysis. The majority of nephrologists indicated satisfaction with access to an attending physician in the TC, receiving timely and adequate information from the TC about their patients. Factors associated with higher likelihood of nephrologist satisfaction regarding communication with the TC included attending national nephrology meetings, medical directorship of a dialysis unit, fellowship training at an institution with an on-site transplant program, and availability of more than 2 transplant centers within 50 miles. Conclusion: There is a lack of evidence-based guidelines for patient transfer of care between nephrologists and transplant centers during various phases of transplant referral, evaluation and post-transplant care. We found that the likelihood of the nephrologists' communication with the transplant center and their satisfaction with the communication are related to their training, participation in continuing educational meetings, their practice location and size, and the overall composition of their patient population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In kidney transplant (KT) recipients, CMV infection poses significant morbidity and mortality. Both prophylactic and pre-emptive approaches for preventing CMV infection have been utilized. Objective: To compare the effectiveness of routine prophylaxis vs. pre-emptive treatment for preventing CMV disease after KT. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing the effectiveness of routine prophylaxis vs. pre-emptive treatment for preventing CMV disease after KT. Combining 4 comprehensive search terms (CMV, renal transplant, prophylaxis, pre-emptive); we searched PubMed, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, and Cochrane Central Register from inception through January 2011. We also evaluated studies referenced in review articles and abstracts from meetings of major nephrology and transplant societies (2009-2011). Two authors independently extracted data and assessed methodological criteria. The primary outcome was the pooled estimate of the odds ratio (OR) of developing CMV infection. Secondary outcomes included OR of acute rejection, OR of graft loss and OR of death within first year of KT. Comprehensive Meta-analysis V2 software was used for data analysis. Results: Analysis of 9 randomized controlled trials (991 patients; ganciclovir=5, valganciclovir=4) with CMV infection as an outcome revealed the OR of CMV infection to be 0.34 (95% CI: 0.25-0.46, p=0.008) for the prophylactic vs. the pre-emptive groups. The OR of acute rejection (7 studies; 1358 patients) was 0.52 (95% CI: 0.41-0.67, p=0.001) with prophylactic approach compared to pre-emptive treatment; graft loss (7 studies; OR 0.52 [95% CI: 0.34-1.12, p=0.32] and mortality (6 studies; OR 0.84 [95% CI: 0.62-1.23, p=0.23]) were similar between the two groups. Conclusions: Prophylactic approach is superior to pre-emptive approach in preventing CMV infection within the first year of kidney transplant. The risk of developing acute rejection is also lower with prophylactic approach in the first year of transplant but there is no significant difference in graft loss or mortality with either approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational exposure to heavy metals, organic solvents and silica is associated with a variety of renal manifestations. Improved understanding of occupational renal disease provides insight into environmental renal disease, improving knowledge of disease pathogenesis. Silica (SiO2) is an abundant mineral found in sand, rock, and soil. Workers exposed to silica include sandblasters, miners, quarry workers, masons, ceramic workers and glass manufacturers. New cases of silicosis per year have been estimated in the US to be 3600–7300. Exposure to silica has been associated with tubulointerstitial disease, immune–mediated multisystem disease, chronic kidney disease and end–stage renal disease. A rare syndrome of painful, nodular skin lesions has been described in dialysis patients with excessive levels of silicon. Balkan endemic nephropathy is postulated to be due to chronic intoxication with drinking water polluted by silicates released during soil erosion. The mechanism of silica nephrotoxicity is thought to be through direct nephrotoxicity, as well as silica–induced autoimmune diseases such as scleroderma and systemic lupus erythematosus. The renal histopathology varies from focal to crescentic and necrotizing glomerulonephritis with aneurysm formation suggestive of polyarteritis nodosa. The treatment for silica nephrotoxicity is non–specific and depends on the mechanism and stage of the disease. It is quite clear that further research is needed, particularly to elucidate the pathogenesis of silica nephropathy. Considering the importance of diagnosing exposure–related renal disease at early stages, it is imperative to obtain a thorough occupational history in all patients with renal disease, with particular emphasis on exposure to silica, heavy metals, and solvents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) has been increasing over time and is associated with a high risk of short-term death. Previous studies on hospital-acquired AKI have important methodological limitations, especially their retrospective study designs and limited ability to control for potential confounding factors. Methods The Assessment, Serial Evaluation, and Subsequent Sequelae of Acute Kidney Injury (ASSESS-AKI) Study was established to examine how a hospitalized episode of AKI independently affects the risk of chronic kidney disease development and progression, cardiovascular events, death, and other important patient-centered outcomes. This prospective study will enroll a cohort of 1100 adult participants with a broad range of AKI and matched hospitalized participants without AKI at three Clinical Research Centers, as well as 100 children undergoing cardiac surgery at three Clinical Research Centers. Participants will be followed for up to four years, and will undergo serial evaluation during the index hospitalization, at three months post-hospitalization, and at annual clinic visits, with telephone interviews occurring during the intervening six-month intervals. Biospecimens will be collected at each visit, along with information on lifestyle behaviors, quality of life and functional status, cognitive function, receipt of therapies, interim renal and cardiovascular events, electrocardiography and urinalysis. Conclusions ASSESS-AKI will characterize the short-term and long-term natural history of AKI, evaluate the incremental utility of novel blood and urine biomarkers to refine the diagnosis and prognosis of AKI, and identify a subset of high-risk patients who could be targeted for future clinical trials to improve outcomes after AKI.

Introduction: The incidence of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) ranges between 10% and 50% among high-risk patients. Whether medications that affect rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) have any impact on the development of CIN remains uncertain.Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective study of patients with CKD stages 3 and 4 who were either on or off RAAS blockade therapy at the time of coronary angiography. Development of CIN was defined by a 25% increase of serum creatinine from baseline or an increase in serum creatinine by 0.5 mg/dL from baseline. Serum creatinine values were recorded before contrast exposure and for 5 days after coronary angiography.Results: A total of 178 patients with CKD who had coronary angiography during the study period were included, of whom 62 (35%) were on ACE inhibitors, 12 (7%) were on ARBs, and 1 (1%) was on combination of ACE inhibitors and ARBs. The estimated glomerular filtration rate was 44.0 ± 11.5 mL/min. The odds ratio of acute kidney failure on day 5 was 0.73 (95% confidence interval, 0.31 to 1.69) for the ACE inhibitors and 0.46 (95% confidence interval, 0.06 to 3.70) for ARBs. Multivariable analysis revealed the findings to be independent of demographic variables, comorbidities, type of contrast medium, and the prophylactic strategies.Conclusions: Patients on RAAS blockade therapy before contrast exposure did not have an increased incidence of CIN. There was also no increased incidence of CIN with ACE inhibitors or ARBs in the subgroups at higher risk, such as those with diabetes mellitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cases of primary hyperaldosteronism, the aldosterone renin ratio (ARR) is crucial for determining the need for adrenal vein sampling (AVS). Our case highlights the importance of utilizing ARR with AVS, contextual interpretation of plasma renin and aldosterone levels, and stresses that sole reliance on imaging without AVS may result in unnecessary or contralateral adrenalectomy., Competing Interests: The authors associated with this case report have no actual or possible conflict of interest to declare., (© 2024 The Author(s). Clinical Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Statement of the Problem: Dental caries are among the most common oral and dental diseases affecting adults and children. To prevent caries, either the factors that cause caries should be reduced or the host resistance should be increased. Several compounds, such as bioglass, chitosan, and silver diamine fluoride (SDF), can enhance enamel remineralization., Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of chitosan, bioglass, chitosan-bioglass, and SDF compounds on remineralizing primary enamel lesions., Materials and Method: In this in vitro study, seventy-two primary canine teeth were collected. The teeth were exposed to a demineralization solution for 72 hours to create primary caries lesions. The primary Vickers microhardness test (VMT) was conducted to measure the initial values. The samples were randomly divided into six groups (n=12): Group 1: bioglass-chitosan solution; Group 2: chitosan; Group 3: bioglass solution; Group 4: SDF; Group 5: remineralization solution; Group 6: distilled water. The solutions of Groups 1, 2, and 3 were applied to the samples for 7 days, while the SDF solution was applied only once. The samples were immersed in an artificial saliva solution, which was refreshed daily. After the treatment, the final Vickers microhardness test (VMT) values were recorded. The data were analyzed statistically using a two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test ( p < 0.05)., Results: The results indicated a statistically significant effect of remineralizing compounds on both pre-treatment and post-treatment microhardness ( p < 0.0001). However, no significant difference in microhardness was observed between the groups studied ( p = 0.225)., Conclusion: All the compounds utilized in this study demonstrated a significant remineralizing effect on enamel lesions caused by primary caries in primary teeth. The chitosan-bioglass and bioglass groups exhibited the highest levels of remineralization, respectively. However, the comparison between the groups yielded insignificant results due to the dispersion of the samples. Therefore, further studies with larger sample sizes are recommended., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists., (Copyright: © Journal of Dentistry.)

Background: The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and kinetic estimated glomerular filtration rate (KeGFR) have not been compared, with urinary measured creatinine clearance (mCrCl) or serum cystatin C (CysC) eGFR, soon after kidney transplantation (KTx) with prompt primary function. This study aims to compare post-KTx, urinary mCrCl, and eGFR CysC with eGFR and KeGFR., Methods: Post-KTx, urine was collected every 12 hours from 25 of the 34 consenting subjects to calculate mCrCl and compare with Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD)-4, Jelliffe eGFR, Cockcroft-Gault creatinine clearance (CrCl), and KeGFR by Chen and Brater formulae. Serum CysC levels were also measured in the last 14 subjects to compare with creatinine, mCrCl, and eGFR CysC . RESULTS: At 12 to 96 hours post-KTx (n = 25), mCrCl was 55.8% to 13.6% higher than MDRD-4 eGFR. The mean CysC level (n = 14) was 58% to 14% lower than creatinine for up to 3.0 days post-KTx, with higher MDRD-4 eGFR CysC. Chen and Brater KeGFR were significantly lower than mCrCl and eGFR (Fig 1B, Table 1). Within 3 days post-KTx, a 50% decrease in creatinine provided ≥ 50 mL/min CrCl in 90% of cases (mean mCrCl 61.7 ± 22.8). This difference was greater when the initial creatinine was higher with the rapid decrease in creatinine., Conclusions: (1) Post-KTx eGFR/KeGFR formulae underestimated mCrCl. (2) Serum CysC levels were lower than creatinine, corresponding with higher eGFR CysC. (3) A 50% decrease from initial serum creatinine; mean mCrCl was 61.7 ± 22.8 mL/min, and 90% of them have mCrCl > 50 mL/min. Post-KTx, until creatinine is stabilized, recipients are often receiving subtherapeutic dosing of renally adjusted medications. More prospective studies are necessary, including radioisotope clearance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All the authors declare no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The association between angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 susceptibility, particularly via ACE-2 receptor upregulation in the kidneys, raises concerns about potential kidney disease risks in long coronavirus disease (COVID) patients. This study explores the association of ACEI/ARB therapy on acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and all-cause mortality in patients with and without long COVID., Methods: A retrospective cohort study using TriNetX datasets was conducted, with diagnoses of long COVID via International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes and prescription for ACEI/ARB as the classification of four cohorts: long COVID ACEI/ARB users (LCAUs), long COVID ACEI/ARB non-users (LCANs), non-long COVID ACEI/ARB users (NLCAUs) and non-long COVID ACEI/ARB non-users (NLCANs). Multivariable stratified Cox proportional hazards regression models assessed the adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) across groups. Additional analyses were conducted, including time-dependent exposure analysis and comparison with an active comparator, calcium channel blockers., Results: Our study included 18 168 long COVID and 181 680 propensity score-matched non-long COVID patients from October 2021 to October 2023. ACEI/ARB use did not significantly affect the risk of AKI or CKD when comparing LCAUs with LCANs and NLCAUs with NLCANs. However, a protective effect against all-cause mortality was observed {aHR 0.79 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65-0.93]} in the NLCAU group compared with the NLCAN group. Conversely, long COVID was associated with increased risks of CKD [aHR 1.49 (95% CI 1.03-2.14)] and all-cause mortality [aHR 1.49 (95% CI 1.00-2.23)] when comparing LCANs with NLCANs. The additional analyses support the primary findings., Conclusions: ACEI/ARB treatment does not increase the incidence of CKD or AKI, regardless of long COVID status. However, long COVID itself is associated with increasing risks of kidney diseases and all-cause mortality., Competing Interests: None declared., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the ERA.)

Tailings dam breaches (TDBs) and subsequent flows can pose significant risk to public safety, the environment, and the economy. Numerical runout models are used to simulate potential tailings flows and understand their downstream impacts. Due to the complex nature of the breach-runout processes, the mobility and downstream impacts of these types of failures are highly uncertain. We applied the first-order second-moment (FOSM) methodology to a database of 11 back-analyzed historical tailings flows to evaluate uncertainties in TDB runout modelling and conducted a sensitivity analysis to identify key factors contributing to the variability of the HEC-RAS model output, including at different locations along the runout path. The results indicate that prioritizing resources toward advancements in estimating the values of primary contributors to the sensitivity of the selected model outputs is necessary for more reliable model results. We found that the total released volume is among the top contributors to the sensitivity of modelled inundation area and maximum flow depth, while surface roughness is among the top contributors to the sensitivity of modelled maximum flow velocity and flow front arrival time. However, the primary contributors to the sensitivity of the model outputs varied depending on the case study; therefore, the selection of appropriate rheological models and consideration of site-specific conditions are crucial for accurate predictions. The study proposes and demonstrates the FOSM methodology as an approximate probabilistic approach to model-based tailings flow runout prediction, which can help improve the accuracy of risk assessments and emergency response plans., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10230-024-00970-w., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

The natural direct and indirect effects in causal mediation analysis with survival data having one mediator is addressed by VanderWeele (2011) [1]. He derived an approach for (1) an accelerated failure time regression model in general cases and (2) a proportional hazards regression model when the time-to-event outcome is rare. If the outcome is not rare, then VanderWeele (2011) [1] did not derive a simple closed-form expression for the log-natural direct and log-natural indirect effects for the proportional hazards regression model because the baseline cumulative hazard function does not approach zero. We develop two approaches to extend VanderWeele's approach, in which the assumption of a rare outcome is not required. We obtain the natural direct and indirect effects for specific time points through numerical integration after we calculate the cumulative baseline hazard by (1) applying the Breslow method in the Cox proportional hazards regression model to estimate the unspecified cumulative baseline hazard; (2) assuming a piecewise constant baseline hazard model, yielding a parametric model, to estimate the baseline hazard and cumulative baseline hazard. We conduct simulation studies to compare our two approaches with other methods and illustrate our two approaches by applying them to data from the ASsessment, Serial Evaluation, and Subsequent Sequelae in Acute Kidney Injury (ASSESS-AKI) Consortium., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: None declared

Background: Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI) are among the most commonly used drugs to treat acid-related gastrointestinal disorders in the USA. Although PPI use has been linked to acute interstitial nephritis, the side effects of post-hospitalization acute kidney injury (AKI) and the progression of kidney disease still are controversial. We conducted a matched cohort study to examine the associations between PPI use and the side effects, especially in post-hospitalization AKI., Methods: We investigated 340 participants from the multicenter, prospective, matched-cohort ASSESS-AKI study, which enrolled participants from December 2009 to February 2015. After the baseline index hospitalization, follow-up visits were conducted every six months, and included a collection of self-reported PPI use by participants. Post-hospitalization AKI was defined as the percentage increase from the nadir to peak inpatient SCr value was ≥ 50% and/or absolute increase ≥ 0.3 mg/dL in peak inpatient serum creatinine compared with baseline outpatient serum creatinine. We applied a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model to test the relationship between PPI use and post-hospitalization AKI. Stratified Cox proportional hazards regression models also were conducted to examine the association between PPI use and the risk of progression of kidney disease., Results: After controlling for demographic variables, baseline co-morbidities and drug use histories, there was no statistically significant association between PPI use and risk of post-hospitalization AKI (risk ratio [RR], 0.91; 95% CI, 0.38 to 1.45). Stratified by AKI status at baseline, no significant relationships were confirmed between PPI use and the risk of recurrent AKI (RR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.11 to 1.56) or incidence of AKI (RR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.27 to 1.76). Similar non-significant results also were observed in the association between PPI use and the risk of progression of kidney diseases (Hazard Ratio [HR], 1.49; 95% CI, 0.51 to 4.36)., Conclusion: PPI use after the index hospitalization was not a significant risk factor for post-hospitalization AKI and progression of kidney diseases, regardless of the AKI status of participants at baseline., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Since the pandemic began in December 2019, SARS-Cov2 has accentuated the wide gap and disparities in socioeconomic and healthcare access at individual, community, country, and regional levels. More than two years into the current pandemic, up to three-fourths of the patients are reporting continued signs and symptoms beyond the acute phase of COVID-19, and Long COVID portends to be a major challenge in the future ahead. With a comprehensive overview of the literature, we found that most studies concerning long COVID came from high and upper-middle income countries, and people of low-income and lower-and-middle income regions and vulnerable groups with comorbid conditions have been neglected. Apart from the level of income, there is a significant geographical heterogeneity in investigating the Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) or what we call now, long COVID. We believe that these recognizing health disparities is crucial from equity perspective and is the first step toward global health promotion.

Numerical runout models are important tools for predicting the potential downstream impacts of tailings dam breaches that generate tailings flows, which is a crucial step in emergency preparedness and planning, and risk management. Most existing runout models were originally developed for the analysis of water floods or flow-like landslides (e.g. debris flows). In this study, we back-analyze two well-documented historical tailings dam breaches (1985 Stava, Italy and 1994 Merriespruit, South Africa) using four numerical models (DAN3D, MADflow, FLO-2D and FLOW-3D). The main objective of this multi-case, multi-model benchmarking exercise is to identify collective opportunities to adapt these types of models and associated modelling methods to tailings dam breach runout applications. Comparing best-fit simulation results, we find that all four models are capable of reproducing the bulk behaviour of the real events; however, (i) multiple sets of rheological parameters may produce very similar output results, (ii) the best-fit input parameter combinations are non-transferable between models and inconsistent with independently measured rheological properties of stored tailings, and (iii) choosing an appropriate set requires sufficient understanding of material rheological properties and expert judgment. Using a systematic sensitivity analysis with the First-Order Second-Moment (FOSM) approach, we also find that each model is sensitive to different input parameters, although the total released volume is among the main high-influence parameters in every scenario. We conclude that more case study back-analyses are needed to enhance our understanding of these sensitivities and develop better guidance on the use of these types of numerical models for tailings flow runout prediction., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Clustered or longitudinal data are commonly encountered in clinical trials and observational studies. This type of data could be collected through a real-time monitoring scheme associated with some specific event, such as disease recurrence, hospitalization, or emergency room visit. In these contexts, the cluster size could be informative because of its potential correlation with disease status, since more frequency of observations may indicate a worsening health condition. However, for some clusters/subjects, there are no measures or relevant medical records. Under such circumstances, these clusters/subjects may have a considerably lower risk of an event occurrence or may not be susceptible to such events at all, indicating a nonignorable zero cluster size. There is a substantial body of literature using observations from those clusters with a nonzero informative cluster size only, but few works discuss informative nonignorable zero-sized clusters. To utilize the information from both event-free and event-occurring participants, we propose a weighted within-cluster-resampling (WWCR) method and its asymptotically equivalent method, dual-weighted generalized estimating equations (WWGEE) by adopting the inverse probability weighting technique. The asymptotic properties are rigorously presented theoretically. Extensive simulations and an illustrative example of the Assessment, Serial Evaluation, and Subsequent Sequelae of Acute Kidney Injury (ASSESS-AKI) study are performed to analyze the finite-sample behavior of our methods and to show their advantageous performance compared to the existing approaches., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Introduction: Biomarkers of acute kidney injury (AKI) are often indexed to urine creatinine (UCr) or urine osmolarity (UOsm) to control for urine concentration. We evaluated how these approaches affect the biomarker-outcome association in patients with AKI., Methods: The Assessment, Serial Evaluation, and Subsequent Sequelae in Acute Kidney Injury Study was a cohort of hospitalized patients with and without AKI between 2009 and 2015. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we assessed the associations and predictions (C-statistics) of urine biomarkers with a composite outcome of incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) and CKD progression. We used 4 approaches to account for urine concentration: indexing and adjusting for UCr and UOsm., Results: Among 1538 participants, 769 (50%) had AKI and 300 (19.5%) developed composite CKD outcome at median follow-up of 4.7 years. UCr and UOsm during hospitalization were inversely associated with the composite CKD outcome. The associations and predictions with CKD were significantly strengthened after indexing or adjusting for UCr or UOsm for urine kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), interleukin-18 (IL-18), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in patients with AKI. There was no significant improvement with indexing or adjusting UCr or UOsm for albumin, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), and chitinase 3-like 1 (YKL-40). Uromodulin's (UMOD) inverse association with the outcome was significantly blunted after indexing but not adjusting for UCr or UOsm., Conclusion: UCr and UOsm during hospitalization are inversely associated with development and progression of CKD. Indexing or adjusting for UCr or UOsm strengthened associations and improved predictions for CKD for only some biomarkers. Incorporating urinary concentration should be individualized for each biomarker in research and clinical applications., (© 2022 International Society of Nephrology. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) is a phenotype that is characterized by the inability of a cell to effectively repair DNA double-strand breaks using the homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway. Loss-of-function genes involved in this pathway can sensitize tumors to poly(adenosine diphosphate [ADP]-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors and platinum-based chemotherapy, which target the destruction of cancer cells by working in concert with HRD through synthetic lethality. However, to identify patients with these tumors, it is vital to understand how to best measure homologous repair (HR) status and to characterize the level of alignment in these measurements across different diagnostic platforms. A key current challenge is that there is no standardized method to define, measure, and report HR status using diagnostics in the clinical setting., Methods: Friends of Cancer Research convened a consortium of project partners from key healthcare sectors to address concerns about the lack of consistency in the way HRD is defined and methods for measuring HR status., Results: This publication provides findings from the group's discussions that identified opportunities to align the definition of HRD and the parameters that contribute to the determination of HR status. The consortium proposed recommendations and best practices to benefit the broader cancer community., Conclusion: Overall, this publication provides additional perspectives for scientist, physician, laboratory, and patient communities to contextualize the definition of HRD and various platforms that are used to measure HRD in tumors., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Zinc is the second most abundant essential trace element in the human body with important regulatory functions in cellular and subcellular levels in several tissues. Zinc deficiency is associated with the development and progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its complications. With the progression of CKD to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and initiation of dialysis, zinc is further removed from the body, potentiating the zinc deficiency. Dietary intake plays a major role in zinc-deficiency-related risks and progression of CKD. By taking into account the evidence from clinical studies depicting the mutual correlations between zinc and CKD, and the plausibility based on animal studies, it can be deduced that zinc deficiency has a causative role in CKD and its progression. This review highlights the role of zinc deficiency in kidney disease and the possible indication for supplementation of zinc at various stages of CKD.  DOI: 10.52547/ijkd.6702.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, cost, and increased caregiver burden. Peer mentoring (PM) improves multiple outcomes in various chronic diseases. The effect of PM on caregiver burden among caregivers of patients with CKD has not been studied. We conducted a randomized clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a structured PM program on burden of care among caregivers of patients with CKD. We randomized 86 caregivers to receive 6 months of intervention in 1 of 3 groups: (1) face-to-face PM ( n  = 29); (2) online PM ( n  = 29); and (3) usual care: textbook-only ( n  = 28). Peer mentors were caregivers of patients with CKD, who received 16 h of instruction. All participants received a copy of a textbook, which contains detailed information about kidney disease. Participants in the PM groups received FTF or online PM for 6 months. The outcome was time-related change in the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) score. There was a statistically significant decrease in the ZBI score (SE: -3.44; CI: -6.31, -0.57 [ p  = 0.002]) compared with baseline, among the online PM group. Online PM led to decreased caregiver burden among caregivers of patients with CKD. The study was limited to English-speaking subjects with computer literacy., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Demand for dental implants has increased in recent years and the use of conscious sedation for this type of surgery can be of great benefit. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the scientific literature related to the effect of conscious sedation on the reduction of anxiety, and patient and surgeon satisfaction. The Embase, PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus, Ovid, and Cochrane databases were searched without limitations. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria determined for the study, 10 articles were selected for the final review during several screening stages. These studies were reviewed in their full-text form by the research team and the intended data was extracted. The risk of bias was assessed for each of the selected articles. Five studies were ultimately included. Two of the them compared local anesthesia and conscious sedation, while another 2 compared the consequences of different types of conscious sedation. The anxiety reduction and patient and surgeon satisfaction data was collated. Midazolam was the most frequently used agent. After a thorough review of the final articles extracted based on the study protocol, it was concluded that the use of conscious sedation during implant surgery reduces patient anxiety, and also increases the satisfaction of the patient and surgeon.