Association of kidney disease measures with risk of renal function worsening in patients with type 1 diabetes

Background: Albuminuria has been classically considered a marker of kidney damage progression in diabetic patients and it is routinely assessed to monitor kidney function. However, the role of a mild GFR reduction on the development of stage 653 CKD has been less explored in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic role of kidney disease measures, namely albuminuria and reduced GFR, on the development of stage 653 CKD in a large cohort of patients affected by T1DM. Methods: A total of 4284 patients affected by T1DM followed-up at 76 diabetes centers participating to the Italian Association of Clinical Diabetologists (Associazione Medici Diabetologi, AMD) initiative constitutes the study population. Urinary albumin excretion (ACR) and estimated GFR (eGFR) were retrieved and analyzed. The incidence of stage 653 CKD (eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or eGFR reduction > 30% from baseline was evaluated. Results: The mean estimated GFR was 98 \ub1 17 mL/min/1.73m2 and the proportion of patients with albuminuria was 15.3% (n = 654) at baseline. About 8% (n = 337) of patients developed one of the two renal endpoints during the 4-year follow-up period. Age, albuminuria (micro or macro) and baseline eGFR < 90 ml/min/m2 were independent risk factors for stage 653 CKD and renal function worsening. When compared to patients with eGFR > 90 ml/min/1.73m2 and normoalbuminuria, those with albuminuria at baseline had a 1.69 greater risk of reaching stage 3 CKD, while patients with mild eGFR reduction (i.e. eGFR between 90 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) show a 3.81 greater risk that rose to 8.24 for those patients with albuminuria and mild eGFR reduction at baseline. Conclusions: Albuminuria and eGFR reduction represent independent risk factors for incident stage 653 CKD in T1DM patients. The simultaneous occurrence of reduced eGFR and albuminuria have a synergistic effect on renal function worsening

A PC-based system for H-reflex and single sweep SEP coupled monitoring of spinal cord function in vertebral column surgery

A system to monitor the spinal cord functionality during vertebral column surgery has been developed with the aim of applying a new technique based on the simultaneous monitoring of the single sweep somatosensory evoked potential (SswSEP) and of the soleus muscle H-reflex, both elicited by the same electrical stimulus. The extraction of the SswSEP is obtained by means of digital signal processing (DSP), based on AutoRegressive model with an eXogenous input (ARX). In order to comply with the necessary hardware and software specifications, a flexible PC-based system has been developed. The software is based on the LabVIEW and MatLab platforms. The hardware is an integration of commercial components and a programmable battery powered stimulator expressly developed to satisfy the particular requirements of the proposed technique. Moreover the system satisfies the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards for electro-medical equipments. In this paper, the basics of the neuromonitoring system along with its specifications and some preliminary results are described

Disseminated hepatic and splenic calcifications following cat-scratch disease

Patients with cat-scratch disease (CSD) may develop visceral manifestations such as hepatic and splenic granulomas. Normally, the granulomas disappear within 1-5 months. Two previous reports have described the evolution of splenic lesions into small calcifications. We report a case of cat-scratch disease in which long lasting multiple and disseminated hepatic and splenic granulomas evolved into coarse calcification