Metabolic syndrome, malnutrition, and its associations with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in hemodialysis patients: Follow-up for three years.

Metabolic disorder contributes to the increase in the mortality rate of patients on hemodialysis (HD). The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and malnutrition in patients on maintenance HD and to evaluate their influence on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality during the follow-up. We carried out a prospective cross- sectional study in which we enrolled 100 patients from a single center who had been followed up for three years. Collected data included demographic characteristics, detailed medical history, clinical variables, MS variables, nutritional status, and laboratory findings. The outcomes were the occurrence of a cardiovascular event and cardiovascular or all-cause mortality during the follow-up period. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software was used for statistical analysis. Whereas 50% of patients had MS, 23% showed evidence of malnutrition. Patients with MS were older and had more preexisting cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). All patients were followed for 36 months. During this time, 19 patients with MS and 14 patients without MS died (38% vs. 28%; P = 0.19), most frequently of CVD. Mean survival time was 71.52 ± 42.1 months for MS group versus 92.06 ± 65 months for non-MS group, but the difference was not significant. MS was related with a higher cardiovascular mortality, while malnutrition was significantly associated with all-cause mortality. Our data showed that MS was not related to cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in HD patients and did not influence survival. The independent risk factors for all-cause mortality were older age, preexisting CVD, and malnutrition.

Lipid and oxidative profile in hemodialysis patients: Clinical follow-up for three years.

BACKGROUND: The major cause of death for hemodialysis (HD) patients was cardiovascular morbidity; it was closely related to oxidative stress (OS). AIM: Firstly, to evaluate lipid peroxidation biomarkers on HD patients through measuring malondialdehyde (MDA) and conjugated dienes (CD), and secondly, to follow these parameters after three years undergoing HD. METHODS: One hundred patients with end stage renal diseases receiving regular hemodialysis and 100 healthy volunteers were included in this study. Routine chemical data, lipid profile and levels of MDA and CD were measured. RESULTS: The plasmatic and erythrocyte MDA levels were significantly increased in the HD patients compared to healthy subjects (p <0.001). However, an increased level on erythrocyte CD was only observed between the two study groups (p<0.001). After 3 years, a significant increased level of lipid peroxidation biomarkers was observed. CONCLUSION: The disturbance in lipid peroxidation state in HD patients was observed. At three years follow-up, oxidative stress is more pronounced with a significant increase in MDA and CD.

Quinolone-resistant clinical strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from University Hospital in Tunisia.

In this study, we examined mutations in the quinolone resistance-determining regions (QRDRs) of the gyrA and parC genes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) clinical isolates collected from patients hospitalized in University Hospital of Monastir, Tunisia. A total of 81 P. aeruginosa strains, obtained from clinical specimens, were included in the present study. Isolates were tested against 11 different antibiotics by a disk diffusion method. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of ciprofloxacin were evaluated by E test method. The gyrA and parC sequences genes amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were sequenced. The highest resistance rates were found for ciprofloxacin (100%), gentamicin (96%) and ticarcillin (93%). The lower resistance rates were obtained for imipenem (74%) and ceftazidime (70%). Notably, 54% of isolates resistant to ciprofloxacin were determined to be multi-drug resistant. The investigation of mutations in the nucleotide sequences of the gyrA and parC genes showed that 77% of isolates have a single mutation in both gyrA (Thr-83 â†’ Ile) and parC (Ser-87 â†’ Leu). The emergence of ciprofloxacin resistance in clinical P. aeruginosa requires the establishment of appropriate antibiotherapy strategies in order to prescribe the most effective antibiotic treatment for preventing the emergence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) P. aeruginosa strains.

Four genotyping schemes for phylogenetic analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: comparison of their congruence with multi-locus sequence typing.

Several molecular typing schemes have been proposed to differentiate among isolates and clonal groups, and hence establish epidemiological or phylogenetic links. It has been widely accepted that multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) is the gold standard for phylogenetic typing/long-term epidemiological surveillance, but other recently described methods may be easier to carry out, especially in settings with limited access to DNA sequencing. Comparing the performance of such techniques to MLST is therefore of relevance. A study was therefore carried out with a collection of P. aeruginosa strains (n = 133) typed by four typing schemes: MLST, multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and the commercial DiversiLab microbial typing system (DL). The aim of this study was to compare the results of each typing method with MLST. The Simpson's indices of diversity were 0.989, 0.980, 0.961 and 0.906 respectively for PFGE, MLVA, DL and MLST. The congruence between techniques was measured by the adjusted Wallace index (W): this coefficient indicates the probability that a pair of isolates which is assigned to the same type by one typing method is also typed as identical by the other. In this context, the congruence between techniques was recorded as follow: MLVA-type to predict MLST-type (93%), PFGE to MLST (92%), DL to MLST (64.2%), PFGE to MLVA (63.5%) and PFGE to DL (61.7%). Conversely, for all above combinations, prediction was very poor. The congruence was increased at the clonal complex (CC) level. MLST is regarded the gold standard for phylogenetic classification of bacteria, but is rather laborious to carry out in many settings. Our data suggest that MLVA can predict the MLST-type with high accuracy, and even higher when studying the clonal complex level. Of the studied three techniques MLVA was therefore the best surrogate method to predict MLST.