Diabetic Kidney Disease: Much Progress, But Still More to Do

Information behaviours of people with type 2 diabetes in Kuwait: a grounded theory study

BACKGROUND

Relative to country-specific epidemiological trends, Kuwait experiences a far greater burden of type 2 diabetes among its population. Information behaviours form a significant component of self-care management for patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, however this remains an understudied aspect of disease management. This study aims to investigate the information behaviours of patients with type 2 diabetes in Kuwait, and characterise the methods employed to manage their disease.

METHODS

This qualitative study employed a grounded theory method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-seven participants over three phases of data collection in primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare settings across Kuwait. These were complemented by in-depth interviews to detail the information behaviours of these participants. The interviews were translated where appropriate, transcripts, and analysed through qualitative coding to synthesise the information behaviour patterns.

RESULTS

The findings demonstrated that living with type 2 diabetes involved a range of developmental and transformative stages, including changes to the patients' emotional state, reconstruction of their lifestyle and identity, and changes in the ways they find and use information. Living with the chronic condition was viewed as a dynamic and transitional process, where patients' information behaviours continually changed throughout the process across various identifiable stages. This dynamic pattern was reflected most prominently across the participants' behavioural needs, sources and information-seeking patterns.

CONCLUSION

Patients with type 2 diabetes continuously adapted their information behaviours to optimise the self-management of their condition across a relatively predictable pattern. Greater understanding of these behaviours across a wider population would improve the provision of clinical care for patients with diabetes.

Extracellular Vesicles in Organ Fibrosis: Mechanisms, Therapies, and Diagnostics

Fibrosis is the unrelenting deposition of excessively large amounts of insoluble interstitial collagen due to profound matrigenic activities of wound-associated myofibroblasts during chronic injury in diverse tissues and organs. It is a highly debilitating pathology that affects millions of people globally and leads to decreased function of vital organs and increased risk of cancer and end-stage organ disease. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced within the chronic wound environment have emerged as important vehicles for conveying pro-fibrotic signals between many of the cell types involved in driving the fibrotic response. On the other hand, EVs from sources such as stem cells, uninjured parenchymal cells, and circulation have in vitro and in vivo anti-fibrotic activities that have provided novel and much-needed therapeutic options. Finally, EVs in body fluids of fibrotic individuals contain cargo components that may have utility as fibrosis biomarkers, which could circumvent current obstacles to fibrosis measurement in the clinic, allowing fibrosis stage, progression, or regression to be determined in a manner that is accurate, safe, minimally-invasive, and conducive to repetitive testing. This review highlights the rapid and recent progress in our understanding of EV-mediated fibrotic pathogenesis, anti-fibrotic therapy, and fibrosis staging in the lung, kidney, heart, liver, pancreas, and skin.

Renal-Cerebral Pathophysiology: The Interplay Between Chronic Kidney Disease and Cerebrovascular Disease

OBJECTIVES

Cerebrovascular disease has increasingly been linked to overall vascular health. Pathologic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease have been shown to affect brain health and cerebrovascular and nervous systems. Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) represent a variety of vascular insults that can adversely affect cerebral health. Hypertension, fluctuations in blood pressure, and diabetic vasculopathy are known risk factors for cerebrovascular disease associated with CKD. Other emerging areas of interest include endothelial dysfunction, vascular calcification due to calcium and phosphorus metabolism dysregulation, and uremic neuropathy present the next frontier of investigation in CKD and cerebrovascular health.

METHODS

It has become apparent that the interrelation of AKI and CKD with vascular health, chemical homeostasis, and hormonal regulation upset many aspects of cerebral health and functioning. Stroke is an obvious connection, with CKD patients demonstrating a higher proclivity for cerebrovascular accidents. Cerebral bleeding risk, uremic neuropathies, sodium dysregulation with impacts on nervous system, vascular calcification, and endothelial dysfunction are the next salient areas of research that are likely to reveal key breakthroughs in renal-cerebral pathophysiology.

RESULTS

In this review nephrological definition are discussed in a neuro-centric manner, and the areas of key overlap between CKD and cerebrovascular pathology are discussed. The multifaceted effects of renal function on the health of the brain are also examined.

CONCLUSION

This review article aims to create the background for ongoing and future neurological-nephrological collaboration on understanding the special challenges in caring for patients with cerebrovascular disease who also have CKD.