Urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio and serum albumin are predictors of acute kidney injury in non-ventilated COVID-19 patients: a single-center prospective cohort study

PURPOSE: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication among COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit, but it is less frequently investigated in general internal medicine wards. We aimed to examine the incidence, the predictors of AKI, and AKI-associated mortality in a prospective cohort of non-ventilated COVID-19 patients. We aimed to describe the natural history of AKI by describing trajectories of urinary markers of hemodynamic, glomerular, and tubular injury. METHODS: 141 COVID-19 patients were enrolled to the study. AKI was defined according to KDIGO guidelines. Urine and renal function parameters were followed twice a week. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of AKI and mortality. Trajectories of urinary markers were described by unadjusted linear mixed models. RESULTS: 19.7% patients developed AKI. According to multiple logistic regression, higher urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.04-2.12/1 mg/mmol) and lower serum albumin (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77-0.94/1 g/L) were independent predictors of AKI. Mortality was 42.8% in the AKI and 8.8% in the group free from AKI (p < 0.0001). According to multiple logistic regression, older age, lower albumin, and AKI (OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.24-12.21) remained independent predictors of mortality. Urinary protein-to-creatinine trajectories were diverging with decreasing values in those without incident AKI. CONCLUSION: We found high incidence of AKI and mortality among moderately severe, non-ventilated COVID-19 patients. Its development is predicted by higher albuminuria suggesting that the originally damaged renal structure may be more susceptible for virus-associated effects. No clear relationship was found with a prerenal mechanism, and the higher proteinuria during follow-up may point toward tubular damage

Circulating mitochondrial stress 70 protein/mortalin and cytosolic Hsp70 in blood: Risk indicators in colorectal cancer.

Mitochondrial mortalin and cytosolic Hsp70 are essential chaperones overexpressed in cancer cells. Our goals were to reproduce our earlier findings of elevated circulating levels of mortalin and Hsp70 in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with a larger patient cohort, to compare death risk assessment of mortalin, Hsp70, CEA and C19-9 and to assess their prognostic value in various CRC stages. Mortalin, Hsp70, CEA and CA19-9 levels were determined in sera of 235 CRC patients enrolled in the study and followed up 5 years after surgery. Association between their concentrations and patients' survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier estimator and subjected to Cox Proportional hazards analysis. Serum level of mortalin was independent of that of Hsp70, CEA and CA19-9, whereas Hsp70 level weakly correlated with CEA and CA19-9 levels. Improved short-term survival was found in early or advanced disease stages associated with lower mortalin and Hsp70 levels. Cox regression analysis showed a high mortality hazard (HR = 3.7, p < 0.001) in patients with both high mortalin and Hsp70 circulating levels. Multivariate analysis showed that high mortalin and Hsp70 significantly enhances risk score over a baseline model of age, number of affected lymph nodes, CEA, CA19-9, disease stage and perioperative therapy. Analysis of mortalin and Hsp70 in CRC patients' sera adds a high prognostic value to TNM stage and to CEA and CA19-9 and identifies patients with lower or higher survival probability in all CRC stages. Determination of mortalin and Hsp70 in blood could be a useful additive prognostic tool in guiding clinical management of patients

FHR-5 Serum Levels and CFHR5 Genetic Variations in Patients With Immune Complex-Mediated Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis and C3-Glomerulopathy

Factor H-related protein 5 (FHR-5) is a member of the complement Factor H protein family. Due to the homology to Factor H, the main complement regulator of the alternative pathway, it may also be implicated in the pathomechanism of kidney diseases where Factor H and alternative pathway dysregulation play a role. Here, we report the first observational study on CFHR5 variations along with serum FHR-5 levels in immune complex-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (IC-MPGN) and C3 glomerulopathy (C3G) patients together with the clinical, genetic, complement, and follow-up data.A total of 120 patients with a histologically proven diagnosis of IC-MPGN/C3G were enrolled in the study. FHR-5 serum levels were measured in ELISA, the CFHR5 gene was analyzed by Sanger sequencing, and selected variants were studied as recombinant proteins in ELISA and surface plasmon resonance (SPR).Eight exonic CFHR5 variations in 14 patients (12.6%) were observed. Serum FHR-5 levels were lower in patients compared to controls. Low serum FHR-5 concentration at presentation associated with better renal survival during the follow-up period; furthermore, it showed clear association with signs of complement overactivation and clinically meaningful clusters.Our observations raise the possibility that the FHR-5 protein plays a fine-tuning role in the pathogenesis of IC-MPGN/C3G

Elevated Systemic Pentraxin-3 Is Associated With Complement Consumption in the Acute Phase of Thrombotic Microangiopathies

Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) and C-reactive protein (CRP) have been shown to regulate complement activation in vitro, but their role has not been investigated in complement consumption in vivo. Thrombotic microangiopathies (TMA) are often accompanied by complement overactivation and consumption, therefore we analyzed the relation of the systemic pentraxin levels to the complement profile, laboratory parameters and clinical outcome of TMA patients. We determined the PTX3 and CRP levels, complement factor and activation product concentrations in blood samples of 171 subjects with the diagnosis of typical hemolytic uremic syndrome (STEC-HUS) (N = 34), atypical HUS (aHUS) (N = 44), secondary TMA (N = 63), thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) (N = 30) and 69 age-matched healthy individuals. Clinical data, blood count and chemistry were collected from medical records. To determine the in vitro effect of PTX3 on alternative pathway (AP) activation, sheep red blood cell-based hemolytic assay and AP activity ELISA were used. We found that PTX3 levels were elevated in the acute phase of STEC-HUS, aHUS and secondary TMA, whereas PTX3 elevation was exceptional is TTP. Conversely, a significantly higher median CRP was present in all patient groups compared to controls. PTX3, but not CRP was associated with signs of complement consumption in vivo, and PTX3 significantly decreased the AP hemolytic activity in vitro. Our results provide a detailed description of acute phase-TMA patients' complement profile linked to changes in the systemic pentraxin levels that may support further molecular studies on the function of PTX3 in disease pathogenesis and add to the laboratory assessment of complement consumption in TMA

Validation of distinct pathogenic patterns in a cohort of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis patients by cluster analysis

Background: A novel data-driven cluster analysis identified distinct pathogenic patterns in C3-glomerulopathies and immune complex-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Our aim was to replicate these observations in an independent cohort and elucidate disease pathophysiology with detailed analysis of functional complement markers. ----- Methods: A total of 92 patients with clinical, histological, complement and genetic data were involved in the study, and hierarchical cluster analysis was done by Ward method, where four clusters were generated. ----- Results: High levels of sC5b-9 (soluble membrane attack complex), low serum C3 levels and young age at onset (13 years) were characteristic for Cluster 1 with a high prevalence of likely pathogenic variations (LPVs) and C3 nephritic factor, whereas for Cluster 2-which is not reliable because of the small number of cases-strong immunoglobulin G staining, low C3 levels and high prevalence of nephritic syndrome at disease onset were observed. Low plasma sC5b-9 levels, decreased C3 levels and high prevalence of LPV and sclerotic glomeruli were present in Cluster 3, and patients with late onset of the disease (median: 39.5 years) and near-normal C3 levels in Cluster 4. A significant difference was observed in the incidence of end-stage renal disease during follow-up between the different clusters. Patients in Clusters 3-4 had worse renal survival than patients in Clusters 1-2. ----- Conclusions: Our results confirm the main findings of the original cluster analysis and indicate that the observed, distinct pathogenic patterns are replicated in our cohort. Further investigations are necessary to analyse the distinct biological and pathogenic processes in these patient groups

C4 nephritic factor in patients with immune-complex-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis and C3-glomerulopathy

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Az autoszomális domináns policisztás vesebetegség és a tolvaptankezelés = Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease and tolvaptan

Az autoszomális domináns policisztás vesebetegség a leggyakoribb öröklődő vesebetegség, amely a végstádiumú vesebetegségek 5-10%-áért tehető felelőssé. Kialakulását elsősorban a policisztint kódoló gének hibája okozza, amely több jelátviteli úton keresztül fokozott folyadéktranszportot, proliferációt, végső soron a ciszták képződését eredményezi. A diagnózis elsődlegesen az ultrahangos képen és családi anamnézisen alapul. Genetikai meghatározásra csak atípusos formákban van szükség. A klinikumra jellemző a hypertonia, haematuria, proteinuria, a progresszíven csökkenő GFR-szint, illetve az extrarenalis manifesztációk – mint a májciszták, agyi aneurysmák, különböző szívbillentyűhibák jelenléte. Nehézséget a differenciáldiagnosztika során elsősorban a többi cisztás vesebetegségtől való elkülönítése jelent. A terápia megtervezése komplex szemléletmódot igényel, amiben alapvető a progresszió sebességének meghatározása. Ebben segítségünkre lehet a Mayo-klasszifikáció, amely a veseméret alapján prognosztizálja a betegséget, illetve a PROPKD-score, amely a klinikumot és a genetikát is figyelembe veszi. A terápiát eddig elsősorban az életmódváltás, a sószegény diéta, a hypertonia kezelése uralta. 2016 óta rendelkezésünkre áll a vazopresszin2-receptor-gátló tolvaptan, amely különböző vizsgálatokban (TEMPO 3:3; TEMPO 3:4; REPRISE) a veseméret növekedésének, illetve a GFR-vesztés mértékének lassulását okozta. Összefoglaló közleményünkben a patogenezis és klinikum áttekintése mellett a legújabb terápiás ajánlás legfontosabb pontjait ismertetjük. A kutatási eredmények alapján a jövőben egyéb jelátviteli útvonalak befolyásolásával újabb terápiás lehetőségek állhatnak majd rendelkezésünkre, mint a szomatosztatinanalógok, az EGFR-gátlók és az mTOR-gátlók. = Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is the most prevalent monogenic, inherited kidney disease, responsible for 5-10% of end stage kidney disease cases. The pathogenic mutations of the polycystin coding-genes result in increased fluid transport, proliferation and eventually in cysts formation. Diagnosis rests on the ultrasound imaging and family history and genetic tests are not necessary except in atypical cases. The clinical symptoms include hypertension, hematuria, proteinuria and progressive GFR decline together with extrarenal manifestations. The differential diagnostic problem is the exclusion of other cystic kidney diseases. The therapeutic strategy needs a complex approach, in which establishing the rate of progression is fundamental. Two different classification systems, the Mayo-classification – based on total kidney volume – and PROPKD-score guide us to determine prognosis. Before 2016 the cornerstones of therapy were sodium- and calory restrictions as well as antihypertensive drugs. Since 2016 tolvaptan, a V2-receptor antagonist is available. Based on pivotal studies (TEMPO 3:3; TEMPO 34, REPRISE) tolvaptan reduced GFR decline and kidney volume progression. In this review we focus on pathophysiology, presentation and main messages of the updated recommendations on tolvaptan use. Novel research suggests, that modification of different signaling pathways – such as somatostatin analogues, EGFR- or mTOR-inhibitors could serve as therapeutic options in the future

Platelet Count, ADAMTS13 Activity, von Willebrand Factor Level and Survival in Patients with Colorectal Cancer: 5-Year Follow-up Study

Distant metastasis is a major cause of colorectal cancer-related death, but the mechanism of tumour progression is not fully understood. There is growing evidence of an interaction between tumour cells and platelets which may influence tumour progression and metastasis formation. Quality and quantity of von Willebrand factor may regulate the interaction between tumour cells and platelets. Our aim was to measure the platelet count, von Willebrand factor antigen (VWF:Ag) levels and ADAMTS13 activity in a large (n = 232) cohort of colorectal cancer patients and to examine their relationships with the stage of the disease and 5-year survival without thrombotic complications using multivariable models. Significantly higher platelet counts (p = 0.005), VWF:Ag levels (p = 0.008) and decreased ADAMTS13 activity (p = 0.006) were observed in patients with metastatic disease. Results of the Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that lower platelet counts (p 1.7, p < 0.05). In summary, this is the first observational study reporting association between higher mortality or thrombotic complications and increased platelet count, increased VWF:Ag levels and decreased ADAMTS13 activity in colorectal cancer