Physicians and Pharmaceutical Industry: Need for Transparency by Conflict of Interest Declaration and Independent Ethical Oversight

Aim: The collaboration between physicians and pharmaceutical industry are based on financial interests on both sides. Transparency will bring the scientific as well as social public to a position from which they are able to judge whether the physician’s interest dominates over the patients’ benefit

Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Parathyroid Hyperplasia in Dialysis Patients

Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is one of the most common complications in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Bone and mineral disorders, increased morbidity and mortality are the consequences of SHPT. Therefore, prevention and control of hyperparathyroidism is one of the main objectives in the management of patients with CKD, particularly in dialysis patients.It is well known that SHPT in CKD is not only a state of increased parathyroid hormone (PTH) synthesis and secretion, but more importantly, it is a state of parathyroid gland (PTG) hyperplasia. The serum concentration of intact PTH is the main method used to assess PTG overactivity. Unfortunately, estimating the size and shape of the PTG in SHPT diagnosis, i.e., parathyroid hyperplasia, is still neglected. Among the various procedures, ultrasonography could be the method of choice to detect PTG size and shape because of its simplicity and noninvasiveness. This method can be sufficiently sensitive to distinguish diffuse and nodular hyperplasia

Survival with low- and high-flux dialysis

FUNDING COSMOS is sponsored by the Bone and Mineral Research Unit (Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias), SAFIM (Sociedad Asturiana Fomento Investigaciones O´ seas), the European Renal Association–European Dialysis and Transplant Association, the National Program of I þ D þ I 2008–2011 and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the ISCIII Retic REDinREN (RD06/0016/1013, RD12/0021/0023 and RD16/ 0009/0017), the ISCIII (ICI14/00107, PI17/00384 and PI20/ 00633), Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), Plan Estatal de I þ D þ I 2013–2016, Plan de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion 2013–2017 y 2018–2022 del Principado de Asturias (GRUPIN14-028, IDI-2018-000152), Fundacio´n Renal I ´nigo A ~ ´ lvarez de Toledo (FRIAT) and the Spanish Society of Nephrology (Estudio Estrate´gico de la SEN). Logistics (meetings, secretarial help, printing of materials, development of website for data entry, etc.) have been financially supported by AMGEN Europe and FRIAT. The authors are not aware of any additional relationships, funding or financial holdings that might be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this study. COSMOS participating centres: see Supplementary Appendix.Background. Besides advances in haemodialysis (HD), mortality rates are still high. The effect of the different types of HD membranes on survival is still a controversial issue. The aim of this COSMOS (Current management Of Secondary hyperparathyroidism: a Multicentre Observational Study) analysis was to survey, in HD patients, the relationship between the use of conventional low- or high-flux membranes and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Methods. COSMOS is a multicentre, open-cohort, 3-year prospective study, designed to evaluate mineral and bone disorders in the European HD population. The present analysis included 5138 HD patients from 20 European countries, 3502 randomly selected at baseline (68.2%), plus 1636 new patients with <1 year on HD (31.8%) recruited to replace patients who died, were transplanted, switched to peritoneal dialysis or lost to follow-up by other reasons. Cox-regression analysis with timedependent variables, propensity score matching and the use of an instrumental variable (facility-level analysis) were used. Results. After adjustments using three different multivariate models, patients treated with high-flux membranes showed a lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risks fhazard ratio (HR) = 0.76 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.61-0.96] and HR = 0.61 (95% CI 0.42-0.87), respectivelyg, that remained significant after matching by propensity score for all-cause mortality (HR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.52-0.93). However, a facility-level analysis showed no association between the case-mix-adjusted facility percentage of patients dialysed with high-flux membranes and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Conclusions. High-flux dialysis was associated with a lower relative risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. However, dialysis facilities using these dialysis membranes to a greater extent did not show better survival.publishersversionpublishe

COSMOS: the dialysis scenario of CKD-MBD in Europe

Background Chronic kidney disease-mineral and bone disorders (CKD-MBD) are important complications of CKD5D patients that are associated with mortality. Methods COSMOS is a multicentre, open cohort, prospective, observational 3-year study carried out in haemodialysis patients from 20 European countries during 2005-07. The present article describes the main characteristics of the European dialysis population, the current practice for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism and the differences across different European regions. Results The haemodialysis population in Europe is an aged population (mean age 64.8 ± 14.2 years) with a high prevalence of diabetes (29.5%) and cardiovascular disease (76.0%), and 28.7% of patients have been on haemodialysis more than 5 years. Patients from the former Eastern countries are younger (59.3 ± 14.3 versus 66.0 ± 13.9), having a lower proportion of diabetics (24.1 versus 30.7%). There were relevant differences in the frequency of measurement of the main CKD-MBD biochemical parameters [Ca, P and parathyroid hormone (PTH)] and the Eastern countries showed a poorer control of these biochemical parameters (K/DOQI and K/DIGO targets). Overall, 48.0% of the haemodialysis patients received active vitamin D treatment. Calcitriol use doubled that of alfacalcidiol in the Mediterranean countries, whereas the opposite was found in the non-Mediterranean countries. The criteria followed to perform parathyroidectomy were different across Europe. In the Mediterranean countries, the level of serum PTH considered to perform parathyroidectomy was higher than in non-Mediterranean countries; as a result, in the latter, more parathyroidectomies were performed in the year previous to inclusion to COSMOS. Conclusions The COSMOS baseline results show important differences across Europe in the management of CKD-MB

Enmity in the intellectual world: Global perspectives and visions

This paper follows the perception of enmity relations in the recent online contributions of 20 global intellectual ‘superstars’, such as Habermas, Klein, Žižek and others. We observed two, very general distinctions; the first one includes several geopolitical oppositions such as Germany vs. the rest of the EU, Russia vs. the West and national vs. supranational, while the second is between the majority and privileged few/elites. We argue that contemporary intellectuals are still influential public figures, and that their efforts are more directed at empowerment and reform of the societies through the existing system than at promoting and advocating alternatives to the existing neoliberal socio-economical order