Sarcopenia is a chronic condition that is associated with aging and characterized by a reduction of muscle mass, strength, and function. Sarcopenia is prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and associated with increased morbidity and mortality, as well as cardiovascular complications. To investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia in patients with CKD not yet on dialysis and its correlation with clinical and laboratory variables and inflammatory markers. A total of 100 patients of both sexes aged over 18 were evaluated. Sarcopenia was defined using the criteria of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) and of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Sarcopenia Project. Sociodemographic and clinical data, activities of daily living, functional capacity, and physical activity were also evaluated. Inflammation was assessed by the serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and interleukin (IL) 4 and 6. The prevalence of sarcopenia was 11.9% and 28.7% using the EWGSOP and FNIH criteria, respectively. Sarcopenia was more prevalent in the more advanced stages of CKD (34.5% in stages 2 and 3A; and 65.5% in stages 3B, 4, and 5) and associated with worse performance in activities of daily living (p = 0.049), lower walking speeds (p < 0.001), and higher body mass indexes (BMIs) (p = 0.001) in the non-adjusted model. In addition, patients with sarcopenia had lower functional capacity (p = 0.012) and higher prevalence of physical inactivity (p = 0.041) compared with patients without sarcopenia. After adjustment for confounding variables, sarcopenia was still significantly correlated with walking speed (p = 0.004) and BMI (p = 0.002). HsCRP levels were inversely correlated with appendicular lean mass adjusted for BMI (p = 0.007) and were also positively associated with BMI (p = 0.001). IL4 levels were positively correlated with walking speed (p = 0.007) and lean mass in the lower limbs (p = 0.022). Sarcopenia is common in patients with CKD, particularly in the most advanced stages of the disease. We observed an association between the levels of inflammatory markers and peripheral lean body mass, physical performance, and BMI. This association between sarcopenia and modifiable factors highlights the importance of early diagnosis and the implementation of therapeutic measures to minimize adverse outcomes in patients with CKD not yet on dialysis.

Summary: Background and objectives: Peritonitis remains as the most frequent cause of peritoneal dialysis (PD) failure, impairing patient's outcome. No large multicenter study has addressed socioeconomic, educational, and geographic issues as peritonitis risk factors in countries with a large geographic area and diverse socioeconomic conditions, such as Brazil. Design, setting, participants, & measurements: Incident PD patients recruited from 114 dialysis centers and reporting to BRAZPD, a multicenter observational study, from December 2004 through October 2007 were included. Clinical, dialysis-related, demographic, and socioeconomic variables were analyzed. Patients were followed up until their first peritonitis. Cox proportional model was used to determine independent factors associated with peritonitis. Results: In a cumulative follow-up of 2032 patients during 22.026 patient-months, 474 (23.3%) presented a first peritonitis episode. In contrast to earlier findings, PD modality, previous hemodialysis, diabetes, gender, age, and family income were not risk predictors. Factors independently associated with increased hazard risk were lower educational level, non-white race, region where patients live, shorter distance from dialysis center, and lower number of patients per center. Conclusions: Educational level and geographic factors as well as race and center size are associated with risk for the first peritonitis, independent of socioeconomic status, PD modality, and comorbidities.

Sarcopenia is a chronic condition associated with physiological aging process and is defined by the reduction of the mass, muscle strength and function. In Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), sarcopenia is prevalent and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and the occurrence of cardiovascular complications. By analyzing sarcopenia in patients with renal insufficiency, complex mechanisms that contribute to loss of muscle mass are highlighted, such as activation of mediators that stimulate the ubiquitin-proteasome system (SUP) ATP-dependent, inflammation, metabolic acidosis, angiotensin II and some hormonal factors. The therapeutic approach to sarcopenia in CKD includes exercises, correction of metabolic acidosis, hormone replacement therapy and insulin resistance. Thus, it is of paramount importance early recognition of sarcopenia in this population, in order to establish effective therapeutic interventions, thus avoiding the full range of complications associated with muscle wasting in CKD.

Patients with terminal chronic kidney disease (CKDT) requiring renal replacement therapies (RRT) undergo important changes in living habits and frequently need caregiving. These patients and their caregivers are risk groups for the development of physical and psychological symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of anxiety, depression, stress, fatigue, social support, and quality of life in patients with CKD and their caregivers. This cross sectional study was conducted with 21 patients and their caregivers, from January to September 2015. We included patients aged over 18 years, with at least 6 months on dialysis treatment, and caregivers who were family members. The participants’ social, demographic, clinical, laboratory, and psychological variables were evaluated. A descriptive analysis and an examination of the association between patients and caregivers were performed. Among patients, we observed that 38.1% had symptoms that indicated anxiety and depression. The average score for practical social support was 3.15 ± 0.769 and that for emotional social support was 3.16 ± 0.79. As for fatigue, 14.3% of patients reported being ‘extremely tired’ and 14.3% reported that they engaged in all the activities they usually performed before the illness. Further, 57.1% presented stress, and of these, 66.7% were at the resistance stage, with predominance of psychological symptoms in 60.0%. The quality of life domain in terms of functional capacity (FC) presented a correlation with haemoglobin level (r = 0.581, p = 0.006) and non-anaemic patients presented better FC. Among caregivers, we observed symptoms that indicated anxiety and depression in 33.3% of the sample. Caregivers exhibited an average score of 2.88 ± 0.77 for practical social support and 3.0 ± 0.72 for emotional social support. Further, 14.3% reported being ‘extremely tired’ and 28.8% reported that they engaged in all activities that they usually performed before the patient’s illness. When comparing the two groups (patients vs. caregivers), we observed that they presented similar results for the presence of anxiety, depression, and fatigue. Caregivers received less social support than patients did. Both groups presented similar predominance of stress levels; however, patients presented more predominance of psychological symptoms. With reference to quality of life, patients and caregivers presented similar results on the social aspects, vitality, mental health, and mental domains. The mental health characteristics of patients and caregivers were similar, and within the context of dialysis for renal disease, both must undergo specific interventions.

Background: Transplant recipients are expected to adhere to a lifelong immunosuppressant therapeutic regimen. However, nonadherence to treatment is an underestimated problem for which no properly validated measurement tool is available for Portuguese-speaking patients. We aimed to initially validate the Basel Assessment of Adherence to Immunosuppressive Medications Scale (BAASIS^®) to accurately estimate immunosuppressant nonadherence in Brazilian transplant patients. Methods: The BAASIS^® (English version) was transculturally adapted and its psychometric properties were assessed. The transcultural adaptation was performed using the Guillemin protocol. Psychometric testing included reliability (intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility, agreement, Kappa coefficient, and the Cronbach’s alpha) and validity (content, criterion, and construct validities). Results: The final version of the transculturally adapted BAASIS^® was pretested, and no difficulties in understanding its content were found. The intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility variances (0.007 and 0.003, respectively), the Cronbach’s alpha (0.7), Kappa coefficient (0.88) and the agreement (95.2%) suggest accuracy, preciseness and reliability. For construct validity, exploratory factorial analysis demonstrated unidimensionality of the first three questions (r = 0.76, r = 0.80, and r = 0.68). For criterion validity, the adapted BAASIS^® was correlated with another self-report instrument, the Measure of Adherence to Treatment, and showed good congruence (r = 0.65). Conclusions: The BAASIS^® has adequate psychometric properties and may be employed in advance to measure adherence to posttransplant immunosuppressant treatments. This instrument will be the first one validated to use in this specific transplant population and in the Portuguese language.

We evaluated the validity and reliability of ultrasonography measurement of rectus femoris cross-sectional area compared to computed tomography in patients in pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease and analyzed the association between these measurements ...