Adherence to Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes Mineral and Bone Guidelines for Monitoring Biochemical Parameters.

BACKGROUND: Mineral and bone disorder (MBD) is common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and is associated with risk of fractures, cardiovascular disease, and death. Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guidelines recommend monitoring CKD-MBD biochemical markers, including parathyroid hormone (PTH), phosphorus, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25D), calcium, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), in patients with moderate-to-severe CKD. METHODS: To determine guideline adherence, we used administrative claims records from the 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries with Parts A, B, and D coverage, 2007 to 2015, and identified cohorts of patients with nondialysis stage 3, 4, or 5 CKD. Testing for biochemical markers during follow-up was defined based on laboratory procedure codes. Baseline factors associated with laboratory testing were determined using logistic regression. All analyses were performed separately by CKD stage. RESULTS: A total of 640,946 stage 3, 136,278 stage 4, and 22,076 stage 5 CKD patients, 50.2-52.9% women, mean age 74.4-78.0 years, were followed for a mean of 2.5, 1.3, and 0.7 years respectively. The frequency of testing was low for PTH (35.2-48.2%), phosphorus (46.6-62.0%), and 25D (29.3-46.7%). Testing was somewhat higher for calcium (88.1-95.4%) and ALP (63.5-88.1%); most tests were features of larger panels (e.g., basic metabolic panel). Older age, most comorbid conditions, and lack of prior nephrology care were associated with lower likelihood of testing. CONCLUSIONS: In fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries, laboratory testing for CKD-MBD biochemical markers appears to be suboptimal in relation to KDIGO guidelines. Competing priories, such as management of comorbid disease and preparation for renal replacement therapy, may distract from CKD-MBD monitoring.

All-Cause Mortality Risk with Direct Oral Anticoagulants and Warfarin in the Primary Treatment of Venous Thromboembolism.

Oral anticoagulants used for the primary treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) include warfarin and the more recently introduced direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), including rivaroxaban, apixaban, dabigatran and edoxaban. Information on the comparative safety of these medications in routine clinical practice is lacking. We identified patients with diagnoses for VTE and prescriptions for oral anticoagulants using claims data from a large U.S. insurance database from 2012 to 2017. Marginal structural logistic models were used to examine associations between type of oral anticoagulant and risk of all-cause mortality. Of 62,431 enrolees in this analysis, 51% were female and the mean age was 61.9 years. Initial oral anticoagulant prescriptions were for warfarin (n = 35,704), rivaroxaban (n = 21,064) and apixaban (n = 5,663). A total of 1,791 deaths occurred within 6 months of the initial oral anticoagulant prescription. Risk of all-cause mortality was not associated with having a prescription for warfarin versus any DOAC or between any head-to-head DOAC comparisons. Also, associations generally did not vary when stratified by VTE type, sex, age, co-morbidities (including renal disease) or anti-platelet medication use. In this observational study, the associations with all-cause mortality comparing DOACs versus warfarin agree with results from previous clinical trials and observational studies, while the associations for head-to-head DOAC comparisons provide new information on the comparative safety of DOACs. Our findings suggest that other criteria such as patient preference, cost, recurrent VTE risk or bleeding risk should be used when determining the choice of anticoagulant for the primary treatment of VTE.

Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis homeostasis predicts longevity.

The reproductive-cell cycle theory of aging posits that reproductive hormone changes associated with menopause and andropause drive senescence via altered cell cycle signaling. Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (n = 5,034), we analyzed the relationship between longevity and menopause, including other factors that impact "ovarian lifespan" such as births, oophorectomy, and hormone replacement therapy. We found that later onset of menopause was associated with lower mortality, with and without adjusting for additional factors (years of education, smoking status, body mass index, and marital status). Each year of delayed menopause resulted in a 2.9% reduction in mortality; after including a number of additional controls, the effect was attenuated modestly but remained statistically significant (2.6% reduction in mortality). We also found that no other reproductive parameters assessed added to the prediction of longevity, suggesting that reproductive factors shown to affect longevity elsewhere may be mediated by age of menopause. Thus, surgical and natural menopause at age 40, for example, resulted in identical survival probabilities. These results support the maintenance of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in homeostasis in prolonging human longevity, which provides a coherent framework for understanding the relationship between reproduction and longevity.