Anticoagulation for Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with End- Stage Kidney Disease

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is common in patients with kidney disease, with prevalence several times greater than in the general population. Anticoagulation agents are used to prevent thromboembolic events as a consequence of AF. Several randomized trials have established the efficacy of antithrombotic drugs for preventing stroke in patients with AF, with both antiplatelet agents and oral anticoagulants showing benefit. End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients have known platelet defects/dysfunction and also receive heparin during their dialysis treatment, which contributes to their overall coagulopathy. Warfarin being vitamin-K antagonist can augment calciphylaxis in patients with ESKD. Taken together, formal anticoagulation use in patients with ESKD may confer additional risk that is not appreciated in patients without kidney disease. In particular, patients on new oral anticoagulants show excess morbidity and mortality from bleeding when compared to warfarin

Membranous Nephropathy

Membranous nephropathy (MN) is a glomerular disease that is the leading cause of nephrotic syndrome in non-diabetic Caucasian adults. MN is most often primary (idiopathic) and the remaining is secondary to systemic disease or exposure to infection or drugs. The majority of patients with MN have circulating antibodies to the podocyte antigens phospholipase A2 receptor (PLA2R) (70%) and thrombospondin type-1 domain-containing 7A (THSD7A) (3–5%). Immunologic remission (depletion of PLA2R antibodies) often precedes and may predict clinical remission. Untreated, about one-third of patients undergo spontaneous remission, one-third have persistent proteinuria but maintain kidney function and the remaining one-third will develop end stage kidney failure. All patients with idiopathic MN should be treated with conservative care from the time of diagnosis to minimise proteinuria. Immunosuppressive therapy is traditionally reserved for patients who have persistent nephrotic-range proteinuria despite conservative care. Immunosuppressive agents for primary MN include combination of corticosteroids/alkylating agent or calcineurin inhibitors and rituximab. This chapter will review the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of MN, particularly focusing on idiopathic MN

Arterial line versus venous line administration of low molecular weight heparin, enoxaparin for prevention of thrombosis in the extracorporeal blood circuit of patients on haemodialysis or haemodiafiltration: a randomized cross-over trial

Study Objective: The objective of the study is to compare the anti-factor Xa (AXa) level in the blood, after arterial and venous line administration of equivalent doses of enoxaparin for prevention of thrombosis in the extracorporeal blood circuit.Design: The design of the study is a dual centre, prospective, open-labelled randomized crossover, 7 weeks trial.Setting: The setting of the study is on a patient on long-term haemodialysis (HD) or haemodiafiltration (HDF) using high-flux membrane.Participant: There were eight patients on HD and eight on HDF.Intervention: Participants were randomly assigned to receive enoxaparin either through the arterial line or venous line of extracorporeal blood circuit for an initial study interval of 2 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of alternate route administration. During the run-in period of 1 week and the follow-up period of 2 weeks, enoxaparin was administered through the arterial line.Outcomes: The primary outcome measure was to compare AXa blood level 4 h after enoxaparin administration. The secondary outcome measures were manual compression time to stop bleeding from arteriovenous fistula, extracorporeal circuit clotting and systemic bleeding episodes.Results: The mean AXa blood level, 4 h after venous circuit administration (0.58 +/- 0.21 (HD), 0.82 +/- 0.29 (HDF)) of enoxaparin, was significantly greater than that after arterial administration of enoxaparin (0.39 +/- 0.25 (HD), 0.39 +/- 0.14 (HDF) U/mL), (

Long-term outcomes of patients with end-stage kidney disease due to membranous nephropathy: A cohort study using the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry

Clinical outcomes of patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) secondary to membranous nephropathy (MN) have not been well described. This study aimed to evaluate patient and/or allograft outcomes of dialysis or kidney transplantation in patients with ESKD secondary to MN.All adult patients with ESKD commencing renal replacement therapy in Australia and New Zealand from January 1998 to December 2010 were extracted retrospectively from ANZDATA registry on 31st December 2013. Outcomes of MN were compared to other causes of ESKD. In a secondary analysis, outcomes of MN were compared to all patients with ESKD due to other forms of glomerulonephritis.Of 32,788 included patients, 417 (1.3%) had MN. Compared to other causes of ESKD, MN experienced lower mortality on dialysis (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.92, p = 0.002) and following kidney transplantation (aHR 0.57, 95% CI 0.33-0.97, p = 0.04), had a higher risk of death-censored kidney allograft failure (aHR 1.55, 95% CI: 1.00-2.41, p = 0.05) but comparable risk of overall kidney allograft failure (aHR 1.35, 95% CI 0.91-2.01, p = 0.13). Similar results were obtained using competing-risk regression analyses. MN patients were significantly more likely to receive a kidney transplant (aHR 1.38, 95% CI 1.16-1.63,

Effect of dialysis modality on survival of hepatitis C-infected ESRF patients

Background and objectivesHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with increased mortality and morbidity in end-stage renal failure (ESRF) patients. Despite a lower incidence and risk of transmission of HCV infection with peritoneal dialysis (PD), the optimal dialysis modality for HCV-infected ESRF patients is not known. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of dialysis modality on the survival of HCV-infected ESRF patients.Design, setting, participants, & measurementsThe study included all adult incident ESRF patients in Australia and New Zealand who commenced dialysis between January 1, 1994, and December 31, 2008, and were HCV antibody-positive at the time of dialysis commencement. Time to all-cause mortality was compared between hemodialysis (HD) and PD according to modality assignment at day 90, using Cox proportional hazards model analysis.ResultsA total of 424 HCV-infected ESRF patients commenced dialysis during the study period and survived for at least 90 days (PD n = 134; HD n = 290). Mortality rates were comparable between PD and HD in the first year (10.7 versus 13.8 deaths per 100 patient-years, respectively; adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.65, 95% CI 0.34 to 1.26) and thereafter (20 versus 15.9 deaths per 100 patient-years, respectively; HR 1.27, 95% CI 0.86 to 1.88).ConclusionsThe survival of HCV-infected ESRF patients is comparable between PD and HD.Bhadran Bose, Stephen P. McDonald, Carmel M. Hawley, Fiona G. Brown, Sunil V. Badve, Kathryn J. Wiggins, Kym M. Bannister, Neil Boudville, Philip Clayton, David W. Johnso