Nutrition for critically ill children and neonates requiring dialysis: Application of clinical practice recommendations.

Approximately 30% of all children and neonates admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) experience acute kidney injury (AKI). Children with AKI are largely poorly fed and experience high rates of malnutrition. Nutrition prescription and provision are exceptionally challenging for critically ill neonates, infants, and children with AKI given the dynamic nature of AKI and its respective treatment modalities. Managing the nutrition prescription of critically ill neonates, infants, and children with AKI requires nutrition support clinicians to have a high-level understanding of the various treatment modalities for AKI, which can affect the patient's protein, fluid, electrolyte, and mineral needs. Accurate and timely nutrition assessment in critically ill neonates and children with AKI can be flawed owing to difficulty obtaining accurate anthropometric parameters. Recently, the Pediatric Renal Nutrition Taskforce introduced clinical practice recommendations for the nutrition management of children with AKI. In this review, we will discuss the practical implications of these recent guidelines and work to bridge the knowledge and practice gaps for pediatric and neonatal nutrition support clinicians providing nutrition therapy for patients with AKI in the ICU. We also appraise special nutrition-related considerations for neonates with AKI given newer available renal replacement treatment modalities.

Documentation of acute kidney injury at discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit and role of nephrology consultation.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether NICU discharge summaries documented neonatal AKI and estimate if nephrology consultation mediated this association. STUDY DESIGN: Secondary analysis of AWAKEN multicenter retrospective cohort. EXPOSURES: AKI severity and diagnostic criteria. OUTCOME: AKI documentation on NICU discharge summaries using multivariable logistic regression to estimate associations and test for causal mediation. RESULTS: Among 605 neonates with AKI, 13% had documented AKI. Those with documented AKI were more likely to have severe AKI (70.5% vs. 51%, p < 0.001) and SCr-only AKI (76.9% vs. 50.1%, p = 0.04). Nephrology consultation mediated 78.0% (95% CL 46.5-109.4%) of the total effect of AKI severity and 82.8% (95% CL 70.3-95.3%) of the total effect of AKI diagnostic criteria on documentation. CONCLUSION: We report a low prevalence of AKI documentation at NICU discharge. AKI severity and SCr-only AKI increased odds of AKI documentation. Nephrology consultation mediated the associations of AKI severity and diagnostic criteria with documentation.

Hyperosmolality, High Blood Pressure, and Decreased Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate in US Adolescents, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2012.

BACKGROUND: Experimental evidence suggests that hyperosmolality may be a causative factor in the development of both salt-sensitive hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD). There are no population-wide studies in young persons to assess the relationships among these factors. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association of serum osmolality and serum sodium with high systolic blood pressure (SBP) and decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) among a nationally representative population of adolescents. METHOD: Relevant data among participants ages 12-14 were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cycles 1999-2012. Serum osmolality was calculated using the Worthley equation. eGFR was calculated using the Counahan-Barratt equation, and values < 90 mL/min/1.73 m2 were considered decreased. High SBP was defined as SBP ≥95th percentile for age, height, and sex. RESULTS: A total of 4,168 adolescents were analyzed (representative population: 10,464,592). Adolescents with serum osmolality ≥290 mOsm/kg and/or serum sodium ≥143 mmol/L had increased odds for both high SBP (serum osmolality ≥290 mOsm/kg: OR 2.04; 95% CI 1.03-4.02; sodium ≥143 mmol/L: OR 4.36; 95% CI 1.58-12.04) and decreased eGFR (serum osmolality ≥290 mOsm/kg: OR 1.61; 95% CI 1.18-2.21; sodium ≥143 mmol/L: OR 3.27; 95% CI 1.77-6.03) when compared to participants with values below these thresholds. These thresholds remained significant even after multivariable adjustment. CONCLUSION: Among adolescents in a nationally representative survey, hypernatremia and hyperosmolality were associated with high SBP and decreased eGFR. These findings may support the hypothesis that an imbalance of salt and water contribute to hypertension and CKD.

Dietary sodium, dietary potassium, and systolic blood pressure in US adolescents.

Both high sodium and low potassium diets are associated with hypertension, but whether these risk factors are distinct or overlapping has not been thoroughly investigated. The authors evaluated the relationship between dietary sodium, potassium, and high systolic blood pressure among 4716 adolescents aged 12 to 14 years who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2012. There was no association with blood pressure across most values of sodium or potassium intake. However, participants who reported sodium intake ≥7500 mg/d, potassium <700 mg/d, or sodium-potassium ratio ≥2.5 had increased odds for high systolic blood pressure (≥95th percentile for age, sex, and height). Although the high sodium and low potassium groups did not overlap, 49.2% of these adolescents also had a sodium-potassium ratio ≥2.5. In young adolescents, both excessive sodium and limited potassium are associated with high systolic blood pressure, but the balance between sodium and potassium intake may be more useful in explaining blood pressure in this population.

Narrating rural lesbian lives: body image and lesbian community in central Pennsylvania.

Research on women's body image has focused on the sexual objectification that women experience in society. The present study explored how rural lesbian women experience their bodies and how lesbian communities, as safe havens from the dominant heterosexual culture, contribute to their body image. Ten lesbians living in central Pennsylvania were interviewed for this study. Interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which aims to explore individuals' experiences and examine how they make sense of their world. The resulting themes focus on participants' descriptions of their feelings about their bodies, the role that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities played in their sense of body image, and the difficulties of finding these communities in the central Pennsylvania area.

Post-traumatic growth: finding positive meaning in cancer survivorship moderates the impact of intrusive thoughts on adjustment in younger adults.

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether post-traumatic growth would moderate the impact of intrusive thoughts on a range of dimensions of well-being in a sample of younger adult survivors of various types of cancer. METHODS: 167 participants completed questionnaires regarding intrusive thoughts, post-traumatic growth, mental and physical health-related quality of life, positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and spiritual well-being. Multiple regression analyses controlling for relevant background and cancer-related variables tested the interaction effects of post-traumatic growth and intrusive thoughts. RESULTS: Intrusive thoughts were related to poorer adjustment on all indices except physical health-related quality of life. However, post-traumatic growth moderated the effects of intrusive thoughts on positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and spiritual well-being in a protective fashion. That is, for those higher in post-traumatic growth, higher levels of intrusive thoughts were related to better adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: The positive meaning that individuals assign to their cancer experience as reflected in their reports of post-traumatic growth appears to be important in determining the impact of intrusive thoughts on post-cancer adjustment.