Burkholderia cepacia (B. cepacia) is a rare opportunistic pathogen in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) peritonitis. We described the first case of repeated B. cepacia CAPD peritonitis, occurred in outpatient environment, treated with antimicrobial medication without peritoneal catheter removal. B.

This study aims to evaluate the temporal trend in the quality of cause-of-death data and garbage code profiles and to determine its association with socio-economic status in Serbia. A longitudinal study was assessed using data from mortality registers from 2005 to 2019. Computer application Analysis of Causes of National Deaths for Action (ANACONDA) calculates the distribution of garbage codes by severity and composite quality indicator: Vital Statistics Performance Index for Quality (VSPI(Q)). A relationship between VSPI(Q) and country development was estimated by analysing two socio-economic indicators: the Socio-demographic Index and the Human Development Index (HDI). Serbia indicates progress in strengthening cause-of-death statistics. The steady upward trend of the VSPI(Q) index has risen from 55.6 (medium quality) to 70.2 (high quality) over the examined years. Significant reduction of ‘Insufficiently specified causes with limited impact’ (Level 4) and an increase in the trend of ‘High-impact garbage codes’ (Levels 1 to 3) were evident. Decreased deaths of no policy value (annual percentage change of −1.41%) have manifested since 2014. A strong positive association between VSPI(Q) and socio-economic indicators was assessed, where the HDI has shown a stronger association with VSPI(Q). Improved socio-economic conditions on the national level are followed by enhanced cause-of-death data quality. Upcoming actions to improve quality should be directed at high-impact garbage codes. The study underlines the need to prioritise the education and training of physicians with a crucial role in death certification to overcome many cause-of-death quality issues identified in this assessment.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, with traditional risk factors failing to fully explain the accelerated atherosclerosis observed in this group. Hepcidin, a major regulator of iron metabolism and inflammation, has emerged as a potential contributor to vascular remodeling. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 82 PD patients to assess the relationship between serum hepcidin levels and carotid intima–media thickness (CIMT), a surrogate marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. Clinical, biochemical, and dialysis-related data were collected. Patients were stratified into tertiles by hepcidin levels, and correlation, regression, and ROC analyses were performed. Results: Serum hepcidin levels showed a strong positive correlation with CIMT (ρ = 0.788, p < 0.001). In multivariate linear regression, hepcidin (β = 0.0057, p = 0.012) and dialysis duration (β = 0.0018, p = 0.015) remained independent predictors of CIMT. ROC analysis demonstrated excellent discriminative ability of hepcidin for elevated CIMT (AUC = 0.922), which improved further with the inclusion of dialysis duration (AUC = 0.952). Conclusions: Serum hepcidin is a strong, independent predictor of subclinical atherosclerosis in PD patients. These findings suggest that iron dysregulation and inflammation may play a more prominent role than traditional cardiovascular risk factors in this population. Hepcidin may serve as a valuable biomarker for early vascular risk stratification and a potential therapeutic target.

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving hemodialysis was recognized as a predictor of poor survival. This study evaluated in-hospital and late survival in patients treated with hemodialysis during COVID-19 hospitalization. Methods: This single-center retrospective study included 176 patients requiring hemodialysis during COVID-19 hospitalization. Patients were divided into three groups: acute kidney injury (AKI), acute-on-chronic kidney disease (aCKD), and chronic hemodialysis (HD). Data was collected from patients' electronic records. Results: The majority (73.3%) of the study population were chronic hemodialysis patients. The overall in-hospital mortality was high (35.8%), and differed significantly among groups: 82.1%, 57.9% and 22.5% in the AKI, aCKD, and HD patients, respectively (p<0.001). After 12 months, death occurred in almost 30% of the reached patients, of whom the majority were from the chronic hemodialysis group. Conclusion: Dialysis-dependent patients experience high mortality during COVID-19, especially those who develop AKI and aCKD. Chronic hemodialysis patients are exposed to better in-hospital survival; however, their one-year mortality remains significant.

Reliable mortality statistics are essential for evidence-based public health policy, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) monitoring, and health system performance evaluation. The WHO-developed ANACONDA framework provides standardised algorithmic metrics to assess cause-of-death (CoD) data quality within Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems. This study applied ANACONDA (v5.0) to Serbian mortality data (2005–2019), encompassing 1.54 million deaths coded using ICD-10. Key indicators included garbage codes (GC), high-impact GC (Levels 1–3), and the Vital Statistics Performance Index for Quality (VSPI(Q)). The VSPI(Q) improved from medium to high quality, while overall GC declined from 47.3% to 40.5%. The findings demonstrate how algorithmic quality auditing strengthens national mortality intelligence systems and supports data-driven health governance.