Purpose . The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of an educational intervention on the level of knowledge and adherence to the treatment regimen among hemodialysis (HD) patients as well as to describe the association between these variables. Methods. In this randomized controlled trial, 160 HD patients at an HD centre of a 2030‐bed tertiary teaching hospital in Southern India were randomly assigned into intervention ( N = 80, received education and a booklet) and control ( N = 80, received standard care) groups. Knowledge and adherence were measured preintervention and postintervention using a validated questionnaire for knowledge and the ESRD‐AQ (End‐Stage Renal Disease Questionnaire) for the level of adherence. The statistical analysis of the data was performed with the help of the Statistical Program SPSS version 19.0. The statistical significance level was set at 0.05. Results. The increase in knowledge on disease management, fluid adherence, and dietary adherence in the intervention group was significantly higher compared to the control group. There was no significant correlation between knowledge and adherence. Adherence improved for all the domains, i.e., dialysis attendance, episodes of shortening, adherence to medication, fluid restriction, and dietary restriction. Adherence to fluid and dietary restriction was statistically significant. This trail is registered with https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/CTRI/2018/05/014166 .

AIM: To study the value of platelet count to spleen diameter ratio as a noninvasive parameter for diagnosing esophageal varices (EVs) in liver cirrhosis.METHODS: The laboratory and ultrasonographic variables were prospectively evaluated in 150 patients with liver cirrhosis. Only stable patients were included in the study. Patients with active gastrointestinal bleeding at the time of admission were excluded. All patients underwent screening upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.RESULTS: The platelet count, spleen diameter and platelet count to spleen diameter ratio in patients with EVs were significantly different from patients without EVs. The platelet count to spleen diameter ratio had the highest accuracy among the three parameters. By applying receiver operating characteristic curves, a platelet count to spleen diameter ratio cut-off value of 1014 was obtained, which gave positive and negative predictive values of 95.4% and 95.1%, respectively. The accuracy of this cut-off value as evaluated by applying receiver operating characteristic curves was 0.942 (95% CI 0.890 to 0.995).CONCLUSION: Among the noninvasive parameters studied, platelet count to spleen diameter ratio had the highest accuracy for diagnosing EVs. However, the evidence for the noninvasive diagnosis is not yet sufficient to replace endoscopy as a diagnostic screening tool for EVs in all cirrhotic patients. The platelet count to spleen diameter ratio may be a useful tool for diagnosing EVs in liver cirrhosis noninvasively when endoscopy facilities are not available.

Purpose: Arteriovenous fistula(AVF) is preferred vascular access for hemodialysis but has primary failure in 20–60%. Studying predictors of AVF failure would help plan appropriate management.We studied AVF outcomes, clinical and vascular factors predicting their failure in patients requiring hemodialysis. Methods: Retrospective study of patients with AVF creation from January 2017 to December 2018. Outcomes studied were immediate (< 72 h), primary (3 months) AVF failure, six-month/one-year patency, analyzed for predictive clinical, vascular factors as assessed using Pre-operative Doppler Ultrasound(DUS). Results: Of 530 AVFs in 460 patients, DUS was done in 426/530 (80.4%), 349/460 (75.8%) were males, mean age was 53.10 ± 14.54 (18–91), 215/460(46.7%) had Diabetes mellitus(DM), 423/460(92%) hypertension. AVFs were radiocephalic in 79/530 (14.9%), brachiocephalic 418/530 (78.9%), brachiobasilic 33/530 (6.2%). AVF Immediate/Primary failure was seen in 64/530 (12.1%), 90/352 (25.6%); Patency at six months/one year in 253/352(71.8%),191/305 (62.6%), respectively. Older age had less immediate failures (AOR 0.97, CI 0.95–0.99, p 0.03). Feeding arterial diameter predicted immediate and primary failure on univariate analysis [OR 0.64 (95% CI 0.49–0.83), 0.62 (95% CI 0.47–0.89), respectively], but not multivariate. Artery diameter of > 4.0 mm had less failures [immediate (p 0.01), primary (p 0.02)], < 2.0 mm had specificity 95.9% and 95.4% for immediate, primary failure respectively. Conclusion: AVF failure is 12.1%, immediately; 25.6% three months after construction, Patency at 6 months is 71.8%, one year 62.6%. Immediate failures decrease with age. Artery diameters > 4.0 mm had less, < 2.0 mm had more failures.

Patients with uraemia are exposed to increased oxidative stress. In this study, a series of oxidative stress markers were measured in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) and patients with CRF on haemodialysis (HD) compared to normal controls to establish whether there is enhanced oxidative stress on HD therapy in uraemic subjects. Protein thiol oxidation, lipid hydroperoxides, albumin and uric acid concentrations were estimated in patients receiving HD and patients with CRF and compared with those in healthy controls. There was a significant decrease in the level of protein thiols in CRF (p = 0.0001) and HD patients (p = 0.0001) compared with that in controls. Lipid hydroperoxides were significantly higher in CRF (p = 0.026) and HD patients (p = 0.003) than in controls. However, there was no significant difference in protein thiols and lipid hydroperoxides between CRF and HD patients. Serum protein thiols correlated negatively with lipid hydroperoxides and positively with serum albumin. These findings suggest that both CRF and HD patients have increased plasma protein oxidation and lipid peroxidation. However, HD therapy per se did not contribute to oxidative stress already present in uraemia. Owing to the variability in lipid peroxidation products as markers of oxidative stress and the vital role played by thiol antioxidants in the biological system, it is suggested that protein thiol oxidation may be a better marker of oxidative stress.

Patient information leaflets are universally-accepted resources to educate the patients/users about their medications, disease and lifestyle modification. The objective of the study was to prepare, validate and perform user-testing of pictogram-based patient information leaflets (P-PILs) among hemodialysis (HD) patients. The P-PILs are prepared by referring to the primary, secondary and tertiary resources. The content and pictograms of the leaflet have been validated by an expert committee consisting of three nephrologists and two academic pharmacists. The Baker Able Leaflet Design has been applied to develop the layout and design of the P-PILs. Quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design without control group was conducted on 81 HD patients for user-testing of P-PILs. The mean Baker Able Leaflet Design assessment score for English version of the leaflet was 28, and 26 for Kannada version. The overall user-testing knowledge assessment mean scores were observed to have significantly improved from 44.25 to 69.62 with p value <0.001. The overall user opinion of content and legibility of the leaflets was good. Pictogram-based patient information leaflets can be considered an effective educational tool for HD patients.