Mapping Protein Structure Changes with Cysteine Labeling Kinetics by Mass Spectrometry

Currently we observe a gap between theory and practices of patient engagement. If both scholars and health practitioners do agree on the urgency to realize patient engagement, no shared guidelines exist so far to orient clinical practice. Despite a supportive policy context, progress to achieve greater patient engagement is patchy and slow and often concentrated at the level of policy regulation without dialoguing with practitioners from the clinical field as well as patients and families. Though individual clinicians, care teams and health organizations may be interested and deeply committed to engage patients and family members in the medical course, they may lack clarity about how to achieve this goal. This contributes to a wide "system" inertia-really difficult to be overcome-and put at risk any form of innovation in this filed. As a result, patient engagement risk today to be a buzz words, rather than a real guidance for practice. To make the field clearer, we promoted an Italian Consensus Conference on Patient Engagement (ICCPE) in order to set the ground for drafting recommendations for the provision of effective patient engagement interventions. The ICCPE will conclude in June 2017. This document reports on the preliminary phases of this process. In the paper, we advise the importance of "fertilizing a patient engagement ecosystem": an oversimplifying approach to patient engagement promotion appears the result of a common illusion. Patient "disengagement" is a symptom that needs a more holistic and complex approach to solve its underlined causes. Preliminary principles to promote a patient engagement ecosystem are provided in the paper

Beyond ISN/RPS Lupus Nephritis Classification: Adding Chronicity Index to Clinical Variables Predicts Kidney Survival

Background: A renewed interest for activity and chronicity indices as predictors of lupus nephritis (LN) outcome has emerged. Revised National Institutes of Health activity and chronicity indices have been proposed to classify LN lesions, but they should be validated by future studies. The aims of this study were (1) to detect the histologic features associated with the development of kidney function impairment (KFI), and (2) to identify the best clinical-histologic model to predict KFI at time of kidney biopsy. Methods: Patients with LN who had more than ten glomeruli per kidney biopsy specimen were admitted to the study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate whether activity and chronicity indices could predict KFI development. Results: Among 203 participants with LN followed for 14 years, correlations were found between the activity index, and its components, and clinical-laboratory signs of active LN at baseline. The chronicity index was correlated with serum creatinine. Thus, serum creatinine was significantly and directly correlated with both activity and chronicity indices. In the multivariate analysis, glomerulosclerosis (OR, 3.05; 95% CI, 1.17 to 7.91; P=0.02) and fibrous crescents (OR, 6.84; 95% CI, 3.22 to 14.52; P<0.001) associated with either moderate/severe tubular atrophy (OR, 3.17; 95% CI, 1.04 to 9.64; P=0.04), or with interstitial fibrosis (OR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.05 to 5.32; P=0.04), predicted KFI. Considering both clinical and histologic features, serum creatinine (OR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.31 to 2.15; P<0.001), arterial hypertension (OR, 4.64; 95% CI, 1.90 to 11.32; P<0.001), glomerulosclerosis (OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.00 to 4.50; P=0.05), and fibrous crescents (OR, 5.18; 95% CI, 2.43 to 11.04; P<0.001) independently predicted KFI. Older age (P<0.001) and longer delay between clinical onset of LN and kidney biopsy (P<0.001) were significantly correlated with baseline chronicity index. Conclusions: The chronicity index and its components, but not the activity index, were significantly associated with an impairment of kidney function. The Cox model showed that serum creatinine, arterial hypertension, chronic glomerular lesions, and delay in kidney biopsy predicted KFI. These data reinforce the importance of timely kidney biopsy in LN

Lack of EULAR/ERA-EDTA response at 1 year predicts poor long-term renal outcome in patients with lupus nephritis

Short-term predictive endpoints of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are needed in lupus nephritis (LN). We tested response to therapy at 1 year