Diabetics on dialysis in Italy: a nationwide epidemiological study.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a common disease, comprising 4-8% of the general population and up to 45% of new dialysis patients in industrialized countries. METHODS: We performed a nationwide study with the aim of analysing the approach of various centres to diabetic patients and to gather data on the epidemiology, clinical characteristics and complications of type 1 and type 2 diabetics. RESULTS: We acquired the data from 513 dialysis centres, 3665 prevalent diabetic patients and 4337 diabetic patients who started dialysis in the previous 10 years. Patient education and dialysis initiation: Sixty percent of the centres educate the patient regarding diet, pharmacological therapy and prevention of diabetic complications; in 245 centres (48%), this task belonged exclusively to the nephrologist and not to a multidisciplinary team. Seventy percent of the centres reported planning the initiation of dialysis and preparing the fistula between 1 and 3 months (78.5%) before the initiation of dialysis. Epidemiological and clinical data: Diabetic patients (56.9% males) represented 12.5% of the total dialysis population in Italy. The ratio between diabetes type 2 and type 1 was 5.3. The initial treatment was haemodialysis (HD) in 2533 patients (bicarbonate HD 88.8%) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) in 405 patients (CAPD 82.2%). During their dialytic life, 383 patients (226 from HD and 157 from PD) changed treatment modality, mainly because of cardiocirculatory instability (158 cases) or infection of the catheter tunnel/peritoneum (89 cases). The changes were mainly directed from bicarbonate HD and CAPD towards diffusive-convective extracorporeal techniques. Blood glucose (mean 154 +/- 56.8 mg/dl) exceeded 200 mg/dl in 15.2% of patients; serum cholesterol was >200 mg/dl in 39.3% of patients; serum triglycerides exceeded 200 mg/dl in 39.2% of patients and mean values for glycosylated haemoglobin was 7.2 +/- 1.8%. The nutritional state was judged to be normal in 59.6% of patients, 16.2% appeared to be mildly malnourished and 3% severely malnourished; 21.1% of subjects were obese. Echocardiography showed left ventricular hypertrophy in 90% of patients and echocolordoppler examination of the great vessels showed pathological findings (plaques and stenoses) in 73%. Pharmacological therapy. Sixty-nine percent of patients were treated with antihypertensive drugs, mainly calcium antagonists (50%) and ACE inhibitors (27%). Nitrates were prescribed for 33% of patients; antiplatelet or anticoagulant drugs were prescribed for 37% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates that the prevalence of diabetics in dialysis continues to increase in Italy, but remains less than that in Northern European countries. Type 2 diabetes is as dangerous as type 1 in terms of serious complications. There appears to be a greater awareness on the part of nephrologists of the serious problems associated with the care of diabetic patients in dialysis. The ideal dialytic modality has not been determined, dialysis is often not initiated in a timely manner and optimal drug therapy is not always prescribed. The aspirations to treat the diabetic dialysis patient according to currently accepted best practice guidelines still need to be fully realized.

A diagnosis of Fabry gastrointestinal disease by chance: a case report.

Fabry disease is an X-linked lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficiency of alpha-galactosidase A. This determines an accumulation of globotriaosylceramide within lysosomes. The clinical picture is highly variable and depends on cellular storage deposition. Renal, cardiac and nervous system are the most frequent organs involved. Gastrointestinal involvement is also present, associated with other clinical signs of Fabry disease and sometimes can be a prominent clinical manifestation. We describe a Fabry disease case in which gastrointestinal involvement was the first and the only clinical sign of Fabry disease and a diagnosis of Fabry disease was made by chance during a family screening. Enzyme replacement therapy was started and after 3 months, there was a complete disappearance of signs.

Renal oncocytoma associated with necrotizing glomerulonephritis.

A case of renal oncocytoma associated with focal segmental necrotizing glomerulonephritis is described. The patient showed haematuria, mild proteinuria and arterial hypertension; the diagnosis was made after right nephrectomy performed because of the presence of a renal mass. A severe re-activation of the glomerulonephritis was observed 15 months after the nephrectomy and a steroid and immunosuppressive therapy was started. Our case is the first reported in which the removal of renal oncocytoma is not followed by the disappearance of renal symptoms, as currently reported in literature, suggesting that the two diseases are not always related.

Fatal intestinal tubercolosis in a uremic patient with a renal transplant.

We report the case of a 52 year-old woman who was re-admitted to regular hemodialysis treatment because of chronic rejection of a renal transplant. She had received her mother's kidney 17 years before and had been treated for a long time with steroids, cyclosporin and azathioprine. In the last two months, fever had occurred, and persisted with the start of hemodialysis. She was admitted to our nephrology unit. Clinical, laboratory, radiological and endoscopic investigations did not lead to a precise diagnosis and broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy failed. Some days later, a clear clinical picture of acute abdomen arose and at laparatomy a perforated jejunal ulcer was found. Histological investigation revealed caseous necrosis around the ulcer. Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stain showed a number of acid-fast resistant bacilli. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Specific therapy was started, but nevertheless the patient died a few days later, of septic shock. Our case shows that tuberculosis continues to be a significant, severe clinical problem in transplant recipients and is in fact still an important cause of death in these patients. The possibility of tuberculosis must be taken into account when a transplant patient shows fever and severe abdominal trouble with no clear evidence of another infection.