Anaemia is an essential complication of ANCA-associated renal vasculitis: a single center cohort study

BackgroundAnaemia is a common complication of patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated renal vasculitis. Nevertheless, the cause and degree of such cases of anaemia have not been elucidated in detail. We aimed to investigate the prevalence, cause, pathogenesis of anaemia and the impact of anaemia on prognosis in patients with ANCA-associated renal vasculitis.MethodsWe identified 45 patients with ANCA-associated renal vasculitis that were clinically and/or histologically diagnosed and treated from 2003 to 2014 at University of Tsukuba Hospital. The relationships between anaemia and various clinicopathological findings were evaluated.ResultsAt the time of diagnosis of ANCA-associated renal vasculitis, all patients showed anaemia, with a mean haemoglobin level of 7.5 ± 1.3 g/dL. Renal anaemia was diagnosed in 92% of patients, anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) in 56%, and anaemia due to hemorrhage in 20%. Next, the patients were divided into two groups according to anaemia severity: minimum haemoglobin (min Hb) < 7.5 (n = 24) and min Hb ≥ 7.5 (n = 21). A comparison of baseline characteristics showed that serum albumin, maximum serum creatinine, minimum estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), serum cystatin C, and the area of tubulointerstitial damage were significantly different between the haemoglobin groups (p <  0.05). No significant intergroup differences were observed in iron-related or inflammation-related data. With regard to the relationship between anaemia severity and prognosis, patients in the min Hb < 7.5 group tended to have a lower eGFR. Anaemia severity was associated with markedly lower survival (Log-rank test, p = 0.03).ConclusionsIn this cohort of patients with ANCA-associated renal vasculitis, all subjects exhibited anaemia. In regard to the cause and pathogenesis, the most prevalent form of anaemia was renal anaemia, not ACD, and a potential reason for the high prevalence of anaemia in our cohort may have been the interaction between renal anaemia and ACD. Moreover, anaemia severity was significantly associated with the degree of renal dysfunction and life prognosis

Higher medical costs for CKD patients with a rapid decline in eGFR: A cohort study from the Japanese general population

To investigate how changes in eGFR can affect medical costs, a regional cohort of national health insurance beneficiaries in Japan was developed from a nationwide database system (Kokuho database, KDB), and non-individualized data were obtained. From 105,661 people, subjects on chronic dialysis and subjects without consecutive medical checkups were excluded. Finally, medical costs in the follow-up year categorized by annual changes in eGFR between baseline and the next year were longitudinally examined in 70,627 people ranging in age from 40 to 74 years. Global mean costs for subjects with a rapid decrease in eGFR (<=-30%/year) were the highest among all Delta eGFR categories. In men, the cost was 1.42 times that for a stable eGFR. A total of 6,268 (19.4%) men and 5,381 (14.0%) women with eGFR <60 ml/min/1.73 m(2) were identified in the baseline year. The mean cost was higher with a low eGFR than without a low eGFR, and there were also higher proportions newly initiating dialysis in 2014 (low eGFR with rapid decrease in eGFR vs. with stable eGFR: 9.61% vs. 0.02% in women, P<0.001). Moreover, the costs for low eGFR subjects with a rapid decrease in eGFR were more than twice those of non-low eGFR subjects with a rapid decrease in eGFR and also compared to low eGFR subjects with a stable eGFR. Moreover, initiating chronic dialysis was considered one of the major causes of high medical costs in women with rapid eGFR decline. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of renal disease using a cohort developed from the KDB system recently established in Japan

Body Lateropulsion and Cerebellar Tremor in a Patient with Pontine Infarction

Body lateropulsion is known to be caused commonly by lateral medullary lesions but rarely by pontine lesions. It is also known to be associated with lesions of the dorsal spinothalamic tract or ascending graviceptive pathways. We herein report the case of a 75-year-old woman presenting with contralateral lateropulsion and cerebellar tremor caused by pons infarction. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of pontine infarction causing both lateropulsion and cerebellar tremor. Our case may be helpful in anatomical studies of ascending graviceptive pathways

Corticosteroids pulse therapy and oral corticosteroids therapy for IgA nephropathy patients with advanced chronic kidney disease: results of a multicenter, large-scale, long-term observational cohort study

Abstract Background Corticosteroids are widely used to reduce the urine protein levels of patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). However, their potential preventive effects on end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) are unclear. Methods We previously performed a large-scale, long-term multicenter cohort study of patients with biopsy-proven IgAN treated between 1981 and 2013 (n = 1923). Based on the results, we reported that corticosteroids pulse therapy was potentially effective for the treatment of patients with an eGFR ≥30 ml/min/1.73m2 and a urine protein amount of ≥1 g/gCr. In the present study, we extracted 766 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), stage G3–G4 (15 ≤ estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] < 60 mL/min/1.73m2) from the same cohort. We divided these patients into a steroid pulse (SP) group, oral steroid (OS) group, and no steroid (NS) group, and analyzed the risk of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) stratified by eGFR and urine protein (UP) amounts. Results Over the median long-term follow-up of 70 ± 115 months, 37.1% of the patients with UP ≥1.0 g/day and 11.2% of the patients with UP < 1.0 g/day reached ESKD. Among the patients with UP ≥1 g/gCr, the SP group showed significantly better renal outcome (p < 0.001) than the OS and NS groups. In patients with UP < 1 g/gCr, there were no differences in renal survival among the treatment groups. These trends appeared even in the CKD stage G4 patients, and were also apparent in patients taking renin-angiotensin system inhibitors. The unprecedented long-term observation period in this study may have been necessary to reveal the favorable effect of corticosteroids on ESKD progression. Conclusions In our long-term multicenter study, Corticosteroids pulse therapy was associated with better renal outcomes in IgAN patients with higher UP values, even if their eGFR values were low

Clin Exp Nephrol

Disease-specific trajectories of renal function in advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) are not well defined. Here, we compared these trajectories in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) by CKD stages. Patients with multiple eGFR measurements during the 5-year preregistration period of the REACH-J study were enrolled. Mean annual eGFR declines were calculated from linear mixed effect models with the adjustment variables of baseline CKD stage, age, sex and the current CKD stage and the level of proteinuria (CKDA1-3). Among 1,969 eligible patients with CKDG3b-5, the adjusted eGFR decline (ml/min/1.73 m/year) was significantly faster in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) patients and polycystic kidney disease (PKD) patients than in patients with other kidney diseases (DKD, - 2.96 ± 0.13; PKD, - 2.82 ± 0.17; and others, - 1.95 ± 0.05, p < 0.01). The declines were faster with higher CKD stages. In DKD patients, the eGFR decline was significantly faster in CKDG5 than CKDG4 (- 4.10 ± 0.18 vs - 2.76 ± 0.20, p < 0.01), while these declines in PKD patients were similar. The eGFR declines in PKD patients were significantly faster than DKD patients in CKDG4 (- 2.92 ± 0.23 vs - 2.76 ± 0.20, p < 0.01) and in CKDA2 (- 3.36 ± 0.35 vs - 1.40 ± 0.26, p < 0.01). Our study revealed the disease-specific annual eGFR declines by CKD stages and the level of proteinuria. Comparing to the other kidney diseases, the declines in PKD patients were getting faster from early stages of CKD. These results suggest the importance of CKD managements in PKD patients from the early stages