Journal Watch
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The Role of Frailty in Home Dialysis
Evaluation of frailty among 109 home dialysis patients revealed a greater than 2-fold increase in risk of a composite outcome that included technique failure and all-cause death. Weakness and weight loss were both linked with higher risk. “Assessing frailty as part of the clinical evaluation for home dialysis therapies may be useful for prognostication and clinical management,” report the authors.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-10-14)
Tags: Frailty, Home Dialysis, All cause Death
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Home Dialysis: Better Outcomes at Lower Costs
Five years after starting dialysis, the population of Ontario, Canada over age 18 had mean 30-day PD costs 50% lower than in-center HD—and home HD costs 64% lower than in-center. After adjusting for covariates, home HD cost the least and had the highest survival (80%) vs. 52% on PD and 42% on in-center HD.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-10-14)
Tags: Home Dialysis, PD Cost, HD Cost, HD Survival
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BMI Alters Sodium Balance in PD
In a review of 439 PD patients, those with more urine volume, protein nitrogen appearance rate, fewer comorbidities, and higher BMI had greater sodium losses.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-09-11)
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A Patient on Home HD for 45 Years
A 62-year old Mississippi woman, one of the first home HD patients of Dr. John D. Bower, is reported to have been on home HD for 45 years now, a record.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-09-11)
Tags: Home Hemodialysis, Quality Of Life, Long term Survival
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Glycated Albumin vs. HbA1c Predicts Mortality in PD Patients with Diabetes
In patients on hemodialysis, glycated albumin (GA) reflects glycemic control and predicts all-cause mortality. A new retrospective, longitudinal observational study looked at GA in PD. Among 44 PD patients with diabetes matched to 88 HD patients with diabetes followed for 3 years, GA was a more precise way to measure glycemic control than hemoglobin A1c.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-09-11)
Tags: Peritoneal Dialysis, All cause Mortality, Glycaemic Control, Glycated Albumin, Glycated Haemoglobin
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RCT: Which Works Best, Straight or Coiled PD Catheters?
A metaanalysis recently found that straight catheters were better, and an RCT of 308 CAPD patients randomly assigned to receive a straight (n=153) or coiled (n=155) catheter corroborates that finding. After a mean follow-up of 21 months, straight PD catheters caused almost 9 times less dysfunction or drainage failure (0.7% vs. 5.8%) with less pain than coiled catheters. Both catheters had a similar risk of peritonitis.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-09-11)
Tags: Catheter, Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), PD, CAPD
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Some PD PETs Are Better Than Others
There are three ways to do a peritoneal equilibrium test (PET) to measure how well someone’s peritoneum is able to transport water and wastes. Compared to a traditional PET, a modified PET had good agreement in 21 patients—but the so-called mini-PET did not.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-08-14)
Tags: Peritoneal Equilibrium Test, PET, Peritoneal Membrane Transport
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Challenges in Assessing Survival of In-center vs. Home HD
It’s treatment time that matters, not location—of course—suggests a new thorough review of the survival data. And, while it is challenging to prove a survival benefit when all home HD is so often conflated (short daily vs. nocturnal, for example), quality of life is demonstrably better—and matters more to patients.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-08-14)
Tags: Treatment Time, Survival Data, Modality, Quality Of Life
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Remote PD Monitoring Reduced Hospitalizations
A study of people starting automated PD matched patients who did and did not receive remote patient monitoring (RPM), with 63 patients in each group. Those who received RPM had significantly fewer hospital stays and days.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-08-14)
Tags: Automated PD, Remote Patient Monitoring, Hospitalization
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Payment Policy is Driving Increases in U.S. Home Dialysis
Follow the money. Analysis of 523,526 patients starting dialysis in the U.S. between 2005 and 2013 found increases in home dialysis use in all groups, and a decline in racial/ethnic differences in home dialysis. However, over time, white patients had an increase in mortality compared to minority patients, while transplant rates remained lower in minority patients.
Read the abstract » | (added 2019-08-14)
Tags: Home Dialysis Outcomes, Racial, Ethnic, Mortality, Transplant Rates

