Hyperparathyroidism in chronic kidney disease patients: an update on current pharmacotherapy

Severe peripheral arterial diseases in hemodialysis patient: A case report

RATIONALE

Peripheral arterial diseases (PADs) is defined as a systemic arterial disorders involving the lower extremity arteries, iliac, and carotid, which is developed more common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) than individual with normal renal function. Concurrence of mesenteric artery disease and lower extremity artery disease (LEAD) is rare. The presence of PADs in patients receiving hemodialysis leads to a dramatic increase in risk of cardiovascular mortality. However, the early diagnosis of PADs in patient with CKD remains a challenge to nephrologists, which adds an adverse effect on prognosis.

PATIENT CONCERNS

A 48-year-old man received regular hemodialysis due to end-stage renal failure caused by type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) for 7 years, who was admitted into hospital for acute, severe rest pain of the right lower extremity at the first time. The computed tomography angiography showed severe, diffuse stenosis of the distal third of femoral artery. After discharged, he was readmitted into hospital for abdominal pain and the recurred right lower limb pain. A diagnostic angiography confirmed the initial occlusion of superior mesenteric artery, severe obstruction of the distal segment of femoral artery and diffuse, irregular stenosis of arteria peronea and arteria tibialis posterior.

DIAGNOSIS

The patient was diagnosed as PADs including LEAD and mesenteric artery disease.

INTERVENTIONS

The percutaneous transulminal angioplasty (PTA) combined with antiplatelet therapy and beraprost were performed. Moreover, the cinacalcet and lanthanum carbonate were prescribed to control calcium-phosphorus- parathyroid hormone metabolism.

OUTCOMES

The patient was free of abdominal pain and partly relieved from the ache of lower limb after PTA. However, he finally succumbed to acute myocardial infarction.

LESSONS

The incidence of PADs is higher in dialysis patients due to a unique set of biochemical and endocrine abnormalities. As there is a high uremic status and PADs burden in patients with hemodialysis, the short term risk of cardiovascular disesase mortality markedly increases. There is a need for nephrologists and cardiovascular physicians to identify these patients and then provide early and proper treatment.

The Risk of Peripheral Arterial Disease after Parathyroidectomy in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease

Purpose

The changes of the risk of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in patients with end-stage renal disease after parathyroidectomy are scant.

Methods

We used a nationwide health insurance claims database to select all dialysis-dependent patients with end-stage renal disease aged 18 years and older for the study population in 2000 to 2006. Of the patients with end-stage renal disease, we selected 947 patients who had undergone parathyroidectomy as the parathyroidectomy group and frequency matched 3746 patients with end-stage renal disease by sex, age, years since the disease diagnosis, and the year of index date as the non-parathyroidectomy group. We used a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with the use of a robust sandwich covariance matrix estimate, accounting for the intra-cluster dependence of hospitals or clinics, to measure the risk of peripheral arterial disease for the parathyroidectomy group compared with the non-parathyroidectomy group after adjusting for sex, age, premium-based income, urbanization, and comorbidity.

Results

The mean post-op follow-up periods were 5.08 and 4.52 years for the parathyroidectomy and non-parathyroidectomy groups, respectively; the incidence density rate of PAD in the PTX group was 12.26 per 1000 person-years, significantly lower than the data in the non-PTX group (24.09 per 1000 person-years, adjusted HR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.46–0.94).

Conclusion

Parathyroidectomy is associated with reduced risk of peripheral arterial disease in patients with end-stage renal disease complicated with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Long-term mortality after parathyroidectomy among chronic kidney disease patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Parathyroidectomy (PTx) and medical treatments are both recommended for reducing serum intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) and curing secondary hyperparathyroidism (sHPT) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), but their therapeutic effects on long-term mortality are not well-known. Thus, we aim to assess such therapeutic effect of PTx. Electronic literatures published on Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials in any language until 27 November 2015 were systematically searched. All literatures that compared outcomes (survival rate or mortality rate) between PTx-treated and medically-treated CKD patients with sHPT were included. Finally, 13 cohort studies involving 22053 patients were included. Data were extracted from all included literatures in a standard form. The outcomes of all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities were assessed using DerSimonian and Laird's random effects model. We find PTx-treated versus medically-treated patients had a 28% reduction in all-cause mortality and a 37% reduction in cardiovascular mortality. Thus, PTx versus medical treatments might reduce the risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities in CKD patients with sHPT. Further studies with prospective and large-sample clinical trials are needed to find out the real effect of PTx and to assess whether mortality rates differ among patterns of PTx.

Changes in skeletal muscle microcirculation after a hemodialysis session correlates with adequacy of dialysis

Background

Monitoring of the microcirculation may add additional information in terms of improving the adequacy of hemodialysis (HD) for patients. Withdrawal of liquid and complement activation during a HD session reduces the external pressure on the microcirculation and leads to an increased dilatation of the peripheral capillaries. The purposes of this study were to assess the effect of a single HD or hemodiafiltration session on the thenar microcirculation in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) with or without diabetes, investigate the possible relationship between changes in the microcirculation and adequacy of dialysis (including Kt/V and parameters indicating secondary hyperparathyroidism), and compare microcirculation measurements obtained from patients with ESRD and those from healthy controls.

Methods

This pilot prospective observational study including eleven patients with ESRD on maintenance HD (nine men of mean age 73±10.5 years, ten [91%] with hypertension), nine patients with ESRD on maintenance hemodiafiltration (six men of mean age 65.5±13.2 years, five [55.5%] with diabetes and four [44.5%] with hypertension), and eight healthy volunteers. Two paired microcirculation assessments were recorded for each HD patient before and after a dialysis session. Near infrared spectroscopy and the vascular occlusion test were used to assess the microcirculation, and blood work samples were collected before and after dialysis when the pump slowed down.

Results

Patients with ESRD showed an increase in thenar cell metabolism at rest after a 4-hour HD session, and changes in cell metabolism correlated with the Kt/V of the session. Pre-dialysis tissue oxygen saturation over the 4-hour HD session correlated with pre-dialysis serum calcium and parathyroid hormones. Vascular reactivity was lower in ESRD patients receiving HD or hemodiafiltration than in healthy controls.

Conclusion

Improvement in skeletal muscle microcirculation noted after a HD session was related to adequacy of dialysis. Evaluation of the microcirculation may provide additional information for management of patients on HD and identify novel targets for treatment. These preliminary findings need to be tested using a larger data set.

Young age, male sex, and end-stage renal disease with secondary hyperparathyroidism as risk factors for intraoperative hyperkalemia during parathyroidectomy

STUDY OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors of intraoperative hyperkalemia in end-stage renal disease patients undergoing parathyroidectomy (PTx) with autotransplantation (AT).

DESIGN

Prospective observational study.

SETTING

Operating room of a tertiary care medical center.

PATIENTS

Thirty-two adult, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 2 and 3 patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism aged between 31 and 72 years scheduled for PTx with AT.

MEASUREMENTS

Laboratory chemistries (intact parathyroid hormone, Na, K, Ca, P, arterial blood gas) were obtained before surgery and at 2 time points during surgery. The first chemistry levels during surgery were checked after the first 2 parathyroid glands had been removed, and the second levels were checked after wound closure. Statistical analysis was performed using t test, Fisher exact test, the receiver operating characteristic curve method, as appropriate.

MAIN RESULTS

Eight patients (25%) developed hyperkalemia during surgery. The hyperkalemia patients had younger age (42±11.44 years vs 52.58±11.83 years, P=.044) and a male dominance (odds ratio, 11.4; P=.01; 95% confidence interval, 1.74-74.65). The cutoff for age was 40.5 years, according to the highest value for sensitivity plus specificity of the receiver operating characteristic curve. There was a higher incidence of intraoperative hyperkalemia in younger patients than in older patients (odds ratio, 8.33; P=.023; 95% confidence interval, 1.39-49.87) as well as a significant increase in potassium level during surgery in younger male patients (P=.005 and .002, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

The anesthesiologist should be aware of the complications of intraoperative hyperkalemia during PTx with AT, especially in male end-stage renal disease patients younger than 40 years.

The relationship between secondary hyperparathyroidism and thyroid cancer in end stage renal disease: a population based cohort study

OBJECTIVES

We conducted a retrospective cohort study to investigate the risk of cancer in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism (HPT).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This study investigated the elevated overall cancer risk in ESRD patients with secondary HPT in Taiwan. We used a population-based retrospective cohort consisting of original claims data of 1 million beneficiaries randomly sampled from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). We calculated the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of cancer in the ESRD with secondary HPT and comparison cohorts, using the Cox proportional hazards regression model.

RESULTS

We observed that ESRD patients with secondary HPT exhibited a 10.1-fold increased risk of thyroid cancer than did ESRD patients without this parathyroid complication, after adjusting for comorbidities (95% confidence interval=1.12-91.0).

CONCLUSION

These phenomena indicate that ESRD patients with secondary HPT are at greater risk of thyroid cancer. Physicians should be alert for occult thyroid cancer in ESRD patients with secondary HPT.

Drug adherence in chronic kidney diseases and dialysis

Poor long-term adherence and persistence to drug therapy is universally recognized as one of the major clinical issues in the management of chronic diseases, and patients with renal diseases are also concerned by this important phenomenon. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients belong to the group of subjects with one of the highest burdens of daily pill intake with up to >20 pills per day depending on the severity of their disease. The purpose of the present review is to discuss the difficulties encountered by nephrologists in diagnosing and managing poor adherence and persistence in CKD patients including in patients receiving maintenance dialysis. Our review will also attempt to provide some clues and new perspectives on how drug adherence could actually be addressed and possibly improved. Working on drug adherence may look like a long and tedious path, but physicians and healthcare providers should always be aware that drug adherence is in general much lower than what they may think and that there are many ways to improve and support drug adherence and persistence so that renal patients obtain the full benefits of their treatments.

Dietary phosphorus and kidney disease

High serum phosphate is linked to poor health outcome and mortality in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients before or after the initiation of dialysis. Therefore, maintenance of normal serum phosphate levels is a major concern in the clinical care of this population with dietary phosphorus restriction and/or use of oral phosphate binders considered to be the best corrective care. This review discusses (1) evidence for an association between serum phosphate levels and bone and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in CKD patients as well as progression of kidney disease itself; (2) the relationship between serum phosphate and dietary phosphorus intake; and (3) implications from these data for future research. Increasing our understanding of the relationship between altered phosphorus metabolism and disease in CKD patients may clarify the potential role of excess dietary phosphorus as a risk factor for disease in the general population.