Nutritional support in the tertiary care of patients affected by chronic renal insufficiency: report of a step-wise, personalized, pragmatic approach.

BACKGROUND: Dietary treatment is helpful in CKD patients, but nutritional interventions are scarcely implemented. The main concern of the renal diets is its feasibility with regards to daily clinical practice especially in the elderly and co-morbid patients. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a pragmatic, step-wise, personalized nutritional support in the management of CKD patients on tertiary care. METHODS: This is a case-control study. It included 823 prevalent out-patients affected by CKD stage 3b to 5 not-in-dialysis, followed by tertiary care in nephrology clinics; 305 patients (190 males, aged 70 ± 12 years) received nutritional support (nutritional treatment Group, NTG); 518 patients (281 males, aged 73 ± 13 years) who did not receive any dietary therapy, formed the control group (CG). In the NTG patients the dietary interventions were assigned in order to prevent or correct abnormalities and to maintain a good nutritional status. They included manipulation of sodium, phosphate, energy and protein dietary intakes while paying special attention to each patient's dietary habits. RESULTS: Phosphate and BUN levels were lower in the NTG than in the CG, especially in stage 4 and 5. The prevalence of hyperphosphatemia was lower in the NTG than in CG in stage 5 (13.3 % vs 53.3 %, p < 001, respectively), in stage 4 (4.1 % vs 18.3 % vs, p < 0.001) and stage 3b (2.8 % vs 9.5 % p < 0.05). Serum albumin was higher in NTG than in CG especially in stage 5 . The use of calcium-free intestinal phosphate binders was significantly lower in NTG than in CG (11 % vs 19 % p < 0.01), as well as that of Erythropoiesis stimulating agents (11 % vs 19 %, p < 0.01), and active Vitamin D preparations (13 % vs 21 %, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This case-control study shows the usefulness of a nutritional support in addition to the pharmacological good practice in CKD patients on tertiary care. Lower phosphate and BUN levels are obtained together with maintenance of serum albumin levels. In addition, a lower need of erythropoiesis stimulating agents, phosphate binders and active Vitamin D preparations was detected in NTG. This study suggests that a nutritional support may be useful in the management of the world-wide growing CKD burden.

[Characteristics of patients with chronic kidney disease referred to a nephrology outpatient clinic: results of Nefrodata study]. / Le caratteristiche dei pazienti con insufficienza renale cronica afferenti agli ambulatori di nefrologia: risultati dallo studio Nefrodata®.

Chronic kidney disease is acknowledged as one of the most relevant disease for public health. Knowledge of epidemiology of CKD may allow public health interventions both for prevention and treatment in order to limit burden and management costs. Nefrodata is a multicentric, prospective, and observational study conducted in Italy, including patients with CKD followed in a specialist setting. The study uses a web-based data setting; it includes 1263 subjects with an estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) less than 60 ml/min *1,73 sqm, followed in outpatient clinics in Italy. Patients' characteristics analysis evidences that old subjects (mean age of 70.3 13.4 years, 55% of them older than 70 years), with cardiovascular morbidity (50,6%) and diabetics (37%) have a high prevalence. With the reduction of residual renal function, prevalence of hyperphospatemia, metabolic acidosis, use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, Vitamin D, and diuretics increases. Also allopurinol and gastric-protective drugs are widely used. Fifty-four and eight % of patients with CKD stage 4 and 65.9% of patients with CKD stage 5 received indication on nutritional therapy.

Low-dose synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone-analog therapy for nephrotic patients: results from a single-center pilot study.

INTRODUCTION: This report describes our experience using a low-dose synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) analog for patients affected by nephrotic syndrome who had not responded to or had relapsed after steroid and immunosuppressive treatments. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eighteen adult nephrotic patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >30 mL/min were recruited. Histological pictures included ten of membranous nephropathy, three of membranous proliferative glomerulonephritis, three of minimal change, and two of focal segmental glomerular sclerosis. All patients received the synthetic ACTH analog tetracosactide 1 mg intramuscularly once a week for 12 months. Estimated glomerular filtration rate, proteinuria, serum lipids, albumin, glucose, and potassium were determined before and during the treatment. RESULTS: One of the 18 patients discontinued the treatment after 1 month because of severe fluid retention, and two patients were lost at follow-up. Complete remission occurred in six cases, while partial remission occurred in four cases (55.5% responder rate). With respect to baseline, after 12 months proteinuria had decreased from 7.24±0.92 to 2.03±0.65 g/day (P<0.0001), and serum albumin had increased from 2.89±0.14 to 3.66±0.18 g/dL (P<0.0001). Total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol had decreased from 255±17 to 193±10 mg/dL (P=0.01), and from 168±18 to 114±7 mg/dL (P=0.03), respectively. No cases of severe worsening of renal function, hyperglycemia, or hypokalemia were observed, and no admissions for cardiovascular or infectious events were recorded. CONCLUSION: Tetracosactide administration at the dosage of 1 mg intramuscularly per week for 12 months seems to be an acceptable alternative for nephrotic patients unresponsive or relapsing after steroid-immunosuppressive regimens. Further studies should be planned to assess the effect of this low-dose ACTH regimen also in nephrotic patients not eligible for kidney biopsy or immunosuppressive protocols.

Geriatric nutritional risk index is a strong predictor of mortality in hemodialysis patients: data from the Riscavid cohort.

INTRODUCTION: Malnutrition is a common complication in hemodialysis (HD) patients and it is related to morbidity and mortality. Although a gold standard method for diagnosis of malnutrition is not available, serum albumin, body weight and height are commonly used and are included in the calculation of the Geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI). Recently the association between GNRI and mortality in chronic HD patients has been documented in Asian populations. Our aim was to examine the relative reliability of the GNRI as a mortality and morbidity predictor in an Italian HD cohort. METHODS: We prospectively examined the GNRI of 753 maintenance HD patients aged 65.7 ± 14.1 years, 457 males, included in the Riscavid cohort, and followed them up for 84 months. Predictors for all-cause death were examined using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional-hazards analyses. RESULTS: Low GNRI was significantly associated with signs of wasting, i.e. low Body mass index, hypoalbuminemia, low normalized protein catabolic rate. Patients within the lowest GNRI quartile had a significantly lower survival rate than those in the 2nd to 4th quartile (p < 0.001). Multivariate Cox proportional-hazards analysis demonstrated that the lowest quartile of GNRI was a significant predictor of case mix adjusted all-cause mortality (HR 1.72; CI 1.35-2.18, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that low GNRI (<92) is associated with malnutrition and is a strong predictor of overall mortality in HD patients. However, cardiovascular events did not differ among the GNRI quartiles. A low GNRI score can be considered a simple and reliable marker of malnutrition and predictor for mortality risk in Caucasian HD patients.

Physical activity and exercise training: a relevant aspect of the dialysis patient's care.

Sedentary lifestyle is frequent in hemodialysis patients whose physical capabilities are largely reduced when compared with healthy subjects, and evidence exists that sedentary dialysis patients are at higher risk of death as compared to non-sedentary ones. Dialysis patients may suffer from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, malnutrition, depression, which limits their exercise capacity; conversely, regular physical exercise may favor rehabilitation and correction of several cardiovascular, metabolic and nutritional abnormalities. Many observational, population-based studies show that the level of physical activity is related to quality of life and nutritional status, as well as to the survival probability. Intervention studies are instead lacking; a randomized controlled multicenter trial is in progress in Italy to assess the effect of home-based exercise programs on survival and hospitalization rate in stable dialysis patients. Implementation of physical activity should be one of the goals of dialysis care management, but several barriers prevent a widespread implementation of physical exercise programs in the dialysis units. A lack of patients' or care-givers' motivation or willingness, and structural or functional resources are the most frequent obstacles to exercise implementation. Since the hemodialysis population is quite heterogeneous for physical abilities and comorbidities, exercise in not for everyone and individual prescription is required for a correct and safe implementation of physical activity.