A review of supportive care for older people with advanced chronic kidney disease.

Supportive care (SC) is a multidimensional and person-centred approach to managing advanced CKD that engages the person and their caregivers in shared decision making from the outset. Rather than focusing on disease-specific therapies, SC is a collection of adjuvant interventions and adaptations to conventional treatments that can be used to improve the individual's quality of life. Recognizing that frailty, multi-morbidity and polypharmacy are more common among older people with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) and that people in this group tend to prioritize quality of life over survival as a goal of care, SC represents an important adjunct to disease-specific therapies in CKD management. This review provides an overview of SC in the older person with advanced CKD.

Clinical Implementation and Initial Experience of Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Testing for the Diagnostic and Prognostic Assessment of Acute Kidney Injury Events in Hospitalized Patients.

INTRODUCTION: The use of novel kidney injury biomarkers has been shown to improve diagnostic assessment and prognostic prediction in various populations with acute kidney injury (AKI), but their use in a standard clinical practice have been rarely reported. METHODS: We reported the clinical implementation of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) measurement for routine AKI diagnostic workup of patients receiving nephrology consultation in a tertiary academic centre. Specific focus was made on the diagnostic performance to discriminate functional ("pre-renal") from intra-renal AKI and to predict AKI progression. RESULTS: Forty-five urine NGAL (uNGAL) and 25 plasma NGAL (pNGAL) samples in the first 50 consecutive patients were analysed. KDIGO Stage 1, 2, 3 AKI, and renal replacement therapy occurred in 10%, 40%, 50%, and 24% of cases, respectively. The uNGAL was lower in patients with transient AKI (<48 h) and no sign of urinary tract infections (37 [25-167] ng/mL) than sustained or progressive AKI (298 [74-1,308] ng/mL) (p = 0.016), while pNGAL did not discriminate transient (264 [100-373] ng/mL) from persistent AKI (415 [220-816] ng/mL) (p = 0.137). The median uNGAL level was 63 (35-1,123) ng/mL for functional/pre-renal AKI and 451 (177-1,315) ng/mL for intra-renal AKI (p = 0.043), while the pNGAL was 264 (114-468) and 415 (230-816) ng/mL (p = 0.235), respectively. CONCLUSION: NGAL, as part of the routine workup, is useful for diagnostic and prognostic assessment of new-onset AKI in clinical practice. Interpretation of an increased NGAL level should be clinically evaluated in its clinical context, particularly considering concomitant infection (urinary or systemic). Clinical adoption of emerging AKI biomarkers as diagnostic tests in clinical practice should be further encouraged.

ANCA-associated vasculitis in Ireland: a multi-centre national cohort study.

Background: Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is a rare multisystem autoimmune disease. There is a need for interoperable national registries to enable reporting of real-world long-term outcomes and their predictors in AAV. Methods: The Irish National Rare Kidney Disease (RKD) registry was founded in 2012. To date, 842 patients with various forms of vasculitis have been recruited across eight nephrology, rheumatology and immunology centres. We focus here on patient- and disease- characteristics, treatment and outcomes of the 397 prospectively recruited patients with AAV. Results: Median age was 64 years (IQR 55-73), 57.9% were male, 58.9% had microscopic polyangiitis and 85.9% had renal impairment. Cumulative one- and five-year patient survival was 94% and 77% respectively. Median follow-up was 33.5 months (IQR 10.7-52.7). After controlling for age, baseline renal dysfunction (p = 0.04) and the burden of adverse events (p <0.001) were independent predictors of death overall. End-stage-kidney-disease (ESKD) occurred in 73 (18.4%) patients; one- and five-year renal survival was 85% and 79% respectively. Baseline severity of renal insufficiency (p = 0.02), urine soluble CD163 (usCD163) (p = 0.002) and "sclerotic" Berden histological class (p = 0.001) were key determinants of ESKD risk. Conclusions: Long-term outcomes of Irish AAV patients are comparable to other reported series. Our results emphasise the need for personalisation of immunosuppression, to limit treatment toxicity, particularly in those with advanced age and renal insufficiency. Baseline usCD163 is a potential biomarker for ESKD prediction and should be validated in a large independent cohort.