Nefrología : publicación oficial de la Sociedad Española Nefrologia
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Hemophagocytic Syndrome is a clinical condition characterized by the activation of either macrophages or histiocytes with a prominent hemophagocytosis feature in the bone marrow and other reticuloendothelial systems. It leads to the phagocytosis of erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets and their precursors. The presence of hemophagocytosis can be associated to infections, malignancies, autoimmune diseases, drugs and a variety of other medical conditions. ⋯ It offers significant differential diagnosis challenges and requires urgent therapeutic intervention. There are only few cases reported in the literature. However, much is still needed in order to better understand its causes, all the immunopathogenic mechanisms, as well as its clinical and therapeutic aspects.
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Practice Guideline
[Present situaltion of living-donor kidney transplantation in Spain and other countries: past, present and future of an excellent therapeutic option].
Kidney transplantation from living donor is an established treatment in Spain since the 60s but has maintained a low level of activity until 2000, when the number of procedures and hospitals that perform this therapy experienced a gradual increase, reaching the highest figure in our history in 2009, with 235 living donor kidney transplants (which represents 10% of renal transplant activity). The reasons why living donor kidney transplantation is emerging in our country are diverse and can be focused in four main areas. 1) Better outcomes obtained when using living donors for kidney transplantation than those obtained with kidneys from deceased donors. Younger recipients with better HLA matching, the good health of the donor, the absence of any damages that occur in the kidney secondary to brain death, the small ischemic time and the possibility of preemptive transplantation can explain the best graft and patient survival. 2) The scarcity of sources: the relaxation of entry criteria on the waiting list implies an increasing challenge of the demand for transplant without the contribution of living donor kidney transplantation, especially in young recipients where the chances of obtaining an age-appropriate deceased donor are lower, due to the change in the profile of the deceased donor (increasingly older). 3) Improvement in the safety of the donor: the excellent evaluation and monitoring of donors (based on international standards) plus the use of less invasive surgical techniques are related to a low complication rate and to survival expectancies of living donors being similar to those of the general population. 4) Barriers overcome: The training effort by the transplant teams, hospital and regional coordinations, and the National Transplant Organization is giving excellent results, visible in the gradual increase in the number of hospitals with a program of living donor kidney transplantation and its activity. In addition, desensitization programs and the national cross-over kidney transplantation program have removed barriers to transplantation in cases of ABO incompatibility or positive crossmatch.
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The traditional evaluation of acid-base status relies on the Henderson-Hasselbach equation. In 1983, an alternative approach, based on physical and chemical principles was proposed by P. Stewart. In this approach, plasma pH is determined by 3 independent variables: pCO2, Strong Ion Difference (SIDm), which is the difference between the strong cations (Na +, K +, Ca ++, Mg ++) and the strong anions (Cl-, lactate) and total plasma concentration of nonvolatile weak acids (ATot), mainly inorganic phosphate and albumin. Bicarbonate is considered a dependent variable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the acid-base status using both perspectives, physical chemical and traditional approach. ⋯ Stewart-Fencl's approach does not improve characterization of acid-base status in patients on chronic HDF. In presence of normocloremia the SIDm does not reflect the alkalinizing process of the session of hemodialysis. According this approach, hemodialysis therapy can be viewed as a withdrawal of inorganic anions, especially the sulphate. These anions are replaced by OH - and secondarily for HCO3-. The approach only improves the evaluation of unmeasured anions by the Gap of the SID, without the effect of albumin and phosphate.
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Letter Case Reports
[Difficult-to-treat atrial fibrillation in a patient on haemodialysis].