Cross sectional survey on the concerns and anxiety of patients waiting for organ transplants.

AIM: We aimed to gain an understanding of patient concerns while on a transplantation waiting list in areas with long transplant waiting time. METHODS: The study population comprised patients with organ failure on the transplant waiting list in Hong Kong. They were invited to complete a questionnaire survey. Demographic data and waiting time were collected. Respondents rated their chance of getting transplanted, their subjective concerns and feelings, level of happiness and support received. RESULTS: A total of 442 patients on the waiting list for kidney, liver, lung and heart-lung transplants completed the questionnaire survey. The majority of patients (93.0%) were waiting for kidney transplantation. More than half of the respondents (63.3%) had been waiting for more than 3 years. Patients with longer transplant waiting times had lower self-estimated chance of receiving a transplant (P = 0.004). Self-estimated chance of getting transplanted was positively associated with the happiness score (P < 0.0001). Issues of most concerns to the patients waiting for organ transplants were: inconvenience of therapy (48.2%), disease progression (47.9%), burden to family (59.5%) and financial difficulties (52.3%). More female patients on the waiting list (50.0% vs 25.7% in male) reported concerns about suffering associated with the illnesses. 21.7% of patients considered the level of support received inadequate. CONCLUSIONS: Our patients had long waiting time for transplantation, which is associated with a lower perceived chance of getting a transplant. Attention to more psychosocial support to these patients waiting for organ transplant is important. Promoting and improving organ donation would be the ultimate way to help these patients.

Serial monitoring of nutritional status in Chinese peritoneal dialysis patients by Subjective Global Assessment and comprehensive Malnutrition Inflammation Score.

AIM: The Malnutrition Inflammation Score (MIS) has been proposed for the assessment of nutritional status in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. The MIS and the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) for serial monitoring of nutritional status in PD patients were compared. METHODS: The change in the MIS and SGA overall score of 59 PD patients (28 male) over 12 months was studied. Clinical factors relating to the discrepancy between the two instruments were explored. RESULTS: The average patient age was 55.8+/-9.7 years. Thirty of the 59 patients (50.8%) had exact agreement in the changed MIS and SGA scores. Cohen's kappa score was 0.274, indicating a modest degree of agreement. For the detection of deterioration in nutritional status and using the MIS as the reference measure, the SGA had a sensitivity of 61.9% and specificity of 86.8%; serum ferritin level was substantially higher in the ones whose SGA did not detect a deterioration in nutrition (1464.1+/-873.3 vs 800.5+/-561.6 pmol/L, P=0.046). For the detection of improvement in nutritional status, the SGA had a sensitivity of 45.8% and specificity of 82.9%; patients whose SGA did not detect an improvement in nutrition were dialyzed longer (53.8+/-35.3 vs 27.6+/-18.9 months, P=0.038), had higher total iron binding capacity (TIBC) (45.6+/-5.5 vs 38.2+/-8.1 micromol/L, P=0.015), had higher total Kt/V (2.02+/-0.36 vs 1.75+/-0.23, P=0.048) and higher normalized protein nitrogen appearance (1.16+/-0.25 vs 0.95+/-0.23 g/kg per day, P=0.048). CONCLUSION: The longitudinal changes in the MIS and SGA score have modest agreement with each other. However, PD patients with a longer duration of dialysis, higher serum ferritin, TIBC, total Kt/V or normalized protein nitrogen appearance tend to have discrepancies between the longitudinal changes in the MIS and SGA overall score.