Zero upper arm hemodialysis fistulas: utopian or realistic goal?

BACKGROUND

Although distal native fistula is the best first-line vascular access (VA), upper arm fistula (UAF) prevalence is increasing worldwide, except in Japan. Our previous survey on 50% of hemodialysis patients (HP) revealed a prevalence of UAF of less than 5%, which is lower than the findings published by the DOPPS 5 study in our country. We analyzed the VA prevalence on 100% of HPs from our department.

METHODS

In December 2021, we investigated the prevalence of vascular access of 1295 hemodialysis patients from 17 dialysis factories. VAs were classified according to location into distal forearm fistula (DFF), middle-proximal forearm fistula (MPFF), and UAF. The department manages VA using a Hub and Spoke model. The hub performs simple and complex VA including Graft placement, the Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty (PTA) of fistulas and central stenosis, and the surgical and endovascular rescue of thrombosed or stenotic fistulas. The spokes perform mainly simple DFFs.

RESULTS

The mean age of 1295 HP (35% females and 21% diabetics) was 69 ± 12.4 years; 506 (39%) were over 75 years old. The prevalence of DFF, MPFF, UAF, GRAFT, and CVC was 63.5%, 10.1%, 3%, 0.7%, and 22.5%, respectively. Data comparison between our two surveys revealed a lower MPFF, UAF, and GRAFT prevalence and increased CVC prevalence. Patients aged 75 years or older, women, and diabetics showed a higher frequency of CVC and a lower prevalence of DFF.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings confirm the low prevalence of UAF found in our prior survey, demonstrating that UAFs can be reduced to 5% or less, as seen in Japanese experience.

P332 ACUTE HEART FAILURE IN AN ELDERLY, DIABETIC, HYPERTENSIVE PATIENT. A NEVER BANAL CASE UNDERLINES THE ROLE OF EMERGENCY ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY AND AND THE RELIABILITY OF THE ANAMNESIS COLLECTED IN URGENCY

We describe the case of a 78–year old male who acceded to high intensity medicine ward for acute heart failure after some days management in the emergency room, with acuity stabilization. In his history all atherosclerosis‘ risk factors were present (diabetes mellitus type 2, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia and kidney chronic disease) together with no active IgGk multiple myeloma, diagnosed the month before. A previous echocardiogram demonstrated aortic valve calcifications, preserved ejection fraction and mild mitral valve failure. the emergency echocardiography service was activated and the patient received echocardiography on first day. Echocardiography revealed severe aortic insufficiency secondary to erosive endocarditis of 15 mm in diameter, increased left ventricular filling pressures, and increased estimated right ventricular pressures. empirical antibiotic therapy was immediately undertaken and were carried out blood cultures.from the emergency echocardiography service the cardiology service was activated for a trans–esophageal echocardio execution which confirmed the findings Streptococcus gallolyticus was isolated. only after performing the echocardiogram did the patient remember having had fever for a few days, more than a month before the first symptoms of heart failure. In the next days, colon adenocarcinoma‘s diagnosis was made. Notably Streptococcus gallolyticus‘s infections are frequent in immunocompromised patients and its most common clinical manifestation is infective endocarditis.This kind of infection is usually connected with colon rectum cancer, mostly in patients that have already started chemotherapy. When endocarditis regards people who don‘t make use of intravenous drugs or that haven‘t congenital or acquired valves defects, the most involved one is the aortic valve. This is especially true in elderly patients.That could be explained by aortic valve damage caused by shear stress and atherosclerotic process, that always involves aortic valve‘s endothelium. This damage manifests itselves as calcium endothelium overload and aortic valve stenosis. All of these factors transform the aortic valve into the perfect target for bacteremia.The patient underwent aortic replacement surgery, because of acute massive aortic valve failure, that impaired patient‘s hemodynamic, and proper antibiotics therapy was started, with benefit. Finally, the colon cancer was treated with surgery, no chemotherapy was needed.

How can molecular abnormalities influence our clinical approach

Background

Despite improvements in diagnostics and treatment, the clinical outcome of epithelial ovarian cancer remains poor over the last three decades. Recent high-throughput genomic studies have demonstrated ovarian cancer as a highly heterogeneous entity with distinctive molecular signatures among different or even within the same histotype. In this article, we review the molecular genetics of epithelial ovarian cancer and how they have been translated into modern clinical trials, as well as their implications in patient stratification for more targeted and personalized approaches.

Patients and methods

Multiple genomic studies were collected to summarize the major advances in understanding ovarian cancer-associated molecular abnormalities with emphasis on their potential clinical applicability to rationalize the design of recent clinical trials.

Results

The clinical management of ovarian cancer can significantly benefit from comprehensive molecular profiling studies, which have uncovered the distinctiveness of ovarian cancer subsets bearing characteristic genomic aberrance and consequentially dysregulated genes and pathways underlying the tumor progression and chemoresistance. Genomics studies have demonstrated a powerful tool to delineate the molecular basis responsible for diverse clinical behaviors associated with tumor histology and grade. In addition, molecular signatures obtained by integrated 'omics' analyses have promised opportunities for novel therapeutic or stratification biomarkers to tailor current clinical management as well as novel predictive tools of clinical end points including patient prognosis and therapeutic efficacy.

Conclusions

Recent progress in understanding the molecular landscape of ovarian cancer has profoundly shifted the design of clinical trials from empirical, unitary paradigms to more rationalized and personalized regimes. Correspondingly, a promising prospective has emerged for ovarian cancer patients to have considerably improved outcome upon careful alignment of patient characteristics, therapeutic biomarkers and targeting approaches. Nevertheless, extensive validation and inference of potential biomarkers are pressing demands on both bioinformatic and biological levels to warrant sufficient clinical relevance for potential translation, so that the performance of related clinical trial can be well predicted and achieved.