ASSESSMENT OF SATISFACTION IN PERITONEAL EQUILIBRATION TEST: A STUDY ON THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE PERITONEAL EQUILIBRATION SATISFACTION SCALE

Aim: This study has been designed to develop an assessment tool to be used in determining the patients' satisfaction level with the peritoneal equilibration test (PET) procedure. Materials and Methods: The development and validation of the peritoneal equilibration test Satisfaction Scale (PETSS) was completed in two phases. Phase I focused on instrument construction and included item development and establishment of concurrent validity. Phase II included the factor analysis and psychometric assessment of the scale. In statistical evaluation of the data descriptive statistics and non-paratmetric tests were used. Results: The first version of the scale that has 3.62 Content Validity Index value was composed of 20 items. It was found that the latest version of the scale that has 14 items explained 46% of the variance. It was found that the Cronbach alfa value of this scale, which has 0.52-0.89 coefficient of item-total correlation was 0.96. Psychometric assessment of the scale revealed that except for type of the PET application, none of the demographic and clinical characteristics effect patients level of satisfaction during the PET application. Conclusion: This preliminary study showed that PETSS was a valid and reliable scale that can be used for determining satisfaction level of patients during PET application

Intraperitoneal vancomycin-induced immune thrombocytopenia

Vancomycin is one of the drugs used in the peritonitis treatment regimen of peritoneal dialysis patients. Intraperitoneal route is generally preferred to provide rapid elimination of infective agents. Systemic toxicities of certain drugs after intraperitoneal administration are not very clear. The same also applies to vancomycin, although it has a considerable amount of systemic absorption after intraperitoneal administration. We herein report a case of severe thrombocytopenia, which was seen during the treatment of a peritonitis attack in a peritoneal dialysis patient. Culture studies revealed methicillin resistant staphylococci as the causative agent and the patient received intraperitoneal vancomycin per sensitivity analysis. Thrombocyte levels dropped abruptly to 3,900/mu l after 10 days of vancomycin treatment. Clinical criteria pointed out to vancomycin-related immune thrombocytopenia. Platelet levels did not recover with initial dexamethasone treatment and platelet transfusions. In the meantime, the clinical course was also complicated with intracranial bleeding. Intravenous immunoglobulin treatment was applied and dexamethasone was switched to high-dose methylprednisolone. This latter treatment generated a response and platelet levels gradually increased to normal levels. The patient could be discharged without any sequelae. There have been two previous intraperitoneal vancomycin-related immune thrombocytopenia cases in the literature. Previous cases were reviewed, and the present case was given in comparison with the previous cases

Severe vitamin D deficiency in chronic renal failure patients on peritoneal dialysis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in chronic renal failure (CRF) patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) and to correlate the findings with various demographic and renal osteodystrophy markers. Method: This cross-sectional, multicenter study was carried out in 273 PD patients with a mean age of 61.7 +/- 10.9 years and mean duration of PD 3.3 +/- 2.2 years. It included 123 female and 150 male patients from 20 centers in Greece and Turkey, countries that are on the same latitude, namely, 36 - 42 degrees north. We measured 25(OH)D-3 and 1.25(OH)(2)D-3 levels and some other clinical and laboratory indices of bone mineral metabolism. Results: Of these 273 patients 92% (251 patients) had vitamin D deficiency i.e. serum 25(OH)D-3 levels less than 15 ng/ml, 119 (43.6%) had severe vitamin D deficiency i.e. serum 25(OH)D-3 levels, less than 5 ng/ml, 132 (48.4%) had moderate vitamin D deficiency i.e. serum 25(OH)D3 levels, 5 - 15 ng/ml, 12 (4.4%) vitamin D insufficiency i.e. serum 25(OH)D3 levels 15 - 30 ng/ml and only 10 (3.6%) had adequate vitamin D stores. We found no correlation between 25(OH)D-3 levels and PTH, serum albumin, bone alkaline phosphatase, P, and Ca x P. In multiple regression analyses, the independent predictors of 25(OH)D-3 were age, presence of diabetes (DM-CRF), levels of serum calcium and serum 1.25(OH)(2)D-3- Conclusion: We found a high prevalence (92%) of vitamin D deficiency in these 273 PD patients, nearly one half of whom had severe vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency is more common in DM-CRF patients than in non-DM-CRF patients. Our findings suggest that these patients should be considered for vitamin D supplementation