Clinical Research Directory

Comparison of Tunneled Cuffed Dialysis Catheters Versus Arteriovenous Fistulae in Elderly or Multimorbid Patients

Patients are randomly assigned to a study group. Depending on the study group, either an arteriovenous fistula or tunneled cuffed catheter (TCC) will be implanted, followed by continuous evaluation of the patients during the first year after initiating the vascular access. The evaluation includes statistical evaluation of all events, including loss of access, thrombosis, infection, loss of patency, increase in co-morbidities, e.g. congestive heart failure as well as quality of life. The implantation of the TCC is a standard procedure and it will be used only in accordance with the approved instructions of use on subjects who have signed an informed consent form. The surgery is a standard operation and it will be performed by specialized surgeons on subjects who have signed an informed consent form (No grafts will be used; implantation of a standard TCC, used at the Department of Nephrology). Both, an arteriovenous fistula or a TCC, will be used for routine chronic haemodialysis

Sodium Deposition in Soft Tissues of Patients with Kidney Disease

Sodium (Na+) hemostasis is abnormal in CKD patients, and this element can be deposited in the skin, muscle, and skeleton - to cope with long term sodium loading. It is known that sodium stored in this non-osmotically active way, is profoundly inflammatory. Furthermore, inflammation has been associated with several uremic symptoms. The investigators will use novel Na+ MRI imaging to examine the Na+ deposition in the skin, muscle, and skeleton of five groups:1) chronic in-center hemodialysis patients, 2) chronic peritoneal dialysis patients, 3) adult and paediatric patients with CKD stage 1-5 and 4) heart failure patients with and without renal dysfunction 5) sex and age-matched healthy adult and paediatric controls. Additionally, they will investigate the association between sodium deposition in these tissues with uremic symptomatology and biochemical markers of metabolism.

Novel Cardiovascular Biomarkers in Patients With Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a long-term condition where the kidneys do not work as well as they should. End-stage kidney failure (ESKD) is the final, irreparable stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD), where kidney function has worsened, so the kidneys can no longer function independently. At this stage, dialysis is required to remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood. There are two types of dialysis. In haemodialysis (HD), blood is pumped out of the body to an artificial kidney machine and returned to the body by tubes that connect a person to the machine. In peritoneal dialysis (PD), the inside lining of the belly acts as a natural filter. PD has the advantage of being gentler on the heart. HD causes significant stress to the heart by reducing the blood flow to the heart muscle, resulting in heart failure, irregular rhythms, and eventually sudden heart death. A large observational study showed that HD patients had 48% worse survival in the first two years than PD patients. Several molecules ('biomarkers') can be detected in blood and inform doctors of heart damage. Studying the form and function of proteins (Proteomics), including how they work and interact with each other inside cells in patients, could help identify the onset of heart problems. HD patients are also prone to body fat changes (cholesterol/lipids). Due to high cholesterol, there is build-up on the walls of arteries, causing their hardening. In HD patients, this process is faster due to abnormalities in lipid structure. Therefore, studying the heart biomarkers, protein, and lipid makeup of HD patients may help to find people at substantial risk of heart and vascular problems and if they are likely to become unwell due to these heart problems.