Blog — NephJC

Therapeutic Hypothermia: Comments on @PubMed Commons

Back in fall 2015, we discussed one of the few positive trials in nephrology on #NephJC, on the use of therapeutic hypothermia for cooling deceased donors and the impact of subsequent graft function. To our pleasant surprise, a few weeks later, the lead author, Claus Niemann, replied in detail to our Pubmed Commons summary comment (see here).

A weeks ago, we noticed another comment on the same article, which pointed out that the record in clinicaltrials.gov had reported a different primary outcome, which indeed it did (primary outcome was terminal graft function in donor). We noted and tweeted out this comment, and the COMPARE group also replied.

But the story is not done yet. Today there is another comment on PubMedCommons, from Melissa Greenwald of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which funded the trial. From her review of documents, delayed graft function does seem to have been one of the primary outcomes, if not the main one. Read it and decide for yourself!

TWiN: The week in Nephrology (March 1 2016)

This week we bring two resources for both physicians and nurses caring for ESRD patients.

  • Starting off with guidelines published in PDI - A syllabus for healthcare professionals for teaching Peritoneal Dialysis to patients and caregivers. Get it here ($wall alert).
  • Dr Schell presents a guide for nephrologists on communicating with the elderly on their choices regarding dialysis.
  • Pediatric kidneys are at risk of worsening function in the setting of non renal transplant patients. This article sets out recommendations on how one should monitor the kidney functions in children with non-renal transplants and guidelines on when to refer the patient to a pediatric nephrologist.
  • We all love to advice about diet and hypertension, and several studies have shown that diet does affect the BP. Coming this week is a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies looking at various kinds of dietary interventions' effect on the BP. The DASH diet still wins with the highest net effect of nearly 7/4 mmHg decrease in BP. This was published in Hypertension.

    Blog posts of note

    We present two brilliant essays by our newly minted interns of #NSMC (Nephrology Social Media Collective)

    • Benjamin Stewart  wrote an essay on the the nephron number and the GFR talking about the "Super-Kidney" or the elite kidneys and what nephron endowment means to the GFR. GIve the blogpost a read on Renal Fellow Network and follow him on twitter.
    • Our next post was by renal transplant fellow Silvi Shah who describes the implications of pregnancy and kidney transplant in a question answer format. Again Renal Fellow Network features this blogpost.
    • Rounding off with my favourite topic - Home Hemodialysis - I came across this excellent essay by a Home Hemodialysis patient in Australia, who describes the econo-socio-political advantages of home hemodialysis and also talks directly to patients (peer-2-peer) about the advantages of HHD. The poem at the end is a touching reminder to all physicians on what a patient really wants for himself. Read it here.

    - Nikhil Shah