Climate Change, Kidney Health, and Environmentally Sustainable Kidney Care.

BACKGROUND: Given the threat of climate change to kidney health and the significant environmental impact of kidney care, calls are increasing for healthcare professionals and organizations to champion climate advocacy and environmentally sustainable kidney care. Yet, little is known about their engagement and existing literature is primarily emerging from high-income countries. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey to understand the knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare professionals on the interconnectedness of climate change and kidney health; to identify personal and organizational initiatives in sustainable kidney care and strategies to increase their engagement; and to compare responses by their country's income level as classified by the World Bank. RESULTS: Participants (n=972) represented 108 countries with 64% from lower- or middle-income countries. Ninety-eight percent believed that climate change is happening, yet <50% possessed knowledge about the impact of climate change on kidney health or the environmental impact of kidney care. Only 14% were involved in climate change and kidney health initiatives (membership, knowledge/awareness, research, advocacy); 22% in sustainable kidney care initiatives (education/advocacy, preventative nephrology, sustainable dialysis, promoting transplant/home therapies, research); and 26% reported organizational initiatives in sustainable kidney care (sustainable general or dialysis practices, preventative/lean nephrology, focused committees). Participants from lower-income countries generally reported higher knowledge and variable level of concern. Engagement in sustainable kidney care did not vary by income level. Guidance/toolkit (79%), continuing education (75%) and opportunities (74%) were the top choices to increase engagement. National initiatives (47%), preventative measures (35%) and research endeavors (31%) were the top avenues for organizational engagement. These varied by income level suggesting that the vision and priorities vary by baseline resource setting. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified knowledge and practice gaps among healthcare professionals on the bidirectional relationship between kidney disease and climate change in a multinational context and several avenues to increase their engagement.

Capacity for the management of kidney failure in the International Society of Nephrology Africa region: report from the 2023 ISN Global Kidney Atlas (ISN-GKHA).

The burden of chronic kidney disease and associated risk of kidney failure are increasing in Africa. The management of people with chronic kidney disease is fraught with numerous challenges because of limitations in health systems and infrastructures for care delivery. From the third iteration of the International Society of Nephrology Global Kidney Health Atlas, we describe the status of kidney care in the ISN Africa region using the World Health Organization building blocks for health systems. We identified limited government health spending, which in turn led to increased out-of-pocket costs for people with kidney disease at the point of service delivery. The health care workforce across Africa was suboptimal and further challenged by the exodus of trained health care workers out of the continent. Medical products, technologies, and services for the management of people with nondialysis chronic kidney disease and for kidney replacement therapy were scarce due to limitations in health infrastructure, which was inequitably distributed. There were few kidney registries and advocacy groups championing kidney disease management in Africa compared with the rest of the world. Strategies for ensuring improved kidney care in Africa include focusing on chronic kidney disease prevention and early detection, improving the effectiveness of the available health care workforce (e.g., multidisciplinary teams, task substitution, and telemedicine), augmenting kidney care financing, providing quality, up-to-date health information data, and improving the accessibility, affordability, and delivery of quality treatment (kidney replacement therapy or conservative kidney management) for all people living with kidney failure.

Pain management and the use of opioids in adults with kidney failure receiving conservative kidney management.

Conservative kidney management (CKM) is an active treatment for kidney failure (KF) for people who will either not benefit from kidney replacement therapy (KRT), do not wish to pursue KRT, or do not have access to KRT. CKM aims to improve patients' quality-of-life through meticulous attention to symptom management. KF is associated with a high symptom burden globally that is experienced across age, sex, and race with chronic pain being one of the most severe and common symptoms. The delivery of CKM therefore requires the integration of effective pain management strategies. This review will provide a detailed insight into CKM globally and will offer an approach to pain management for people with KF who are receiving CKM. Specifically, this review will provide an overview of the clinical characteristics of people receiving CKM across both high and low resource settings and the epidemiology of pain in this population. While it will provide some high-level considerations for the non-pharmacologic management of pain, it will focus predominantly on pharmacologic approaches. This will include considerations of non-opioid analgesics and strategies for the use of opioids in people receiving CKM. Furthermore, we will explore global disparities in kidney care, CKM, and pain management resources, including access to opioids and will discuss some of the additional challenges faced in low resource settings.

Thirty-day mortality rates among young adult stroke patients and their characteristics at Kiruddu and Mulago hospitals in Uganda: A prospective observational cohort study.

Stroke outcomes among young adults in Uganda are unclear. This study therefore determined the clinical characteristics and 30-day outcome among young adults with an acute stroke. In a prospective observational cohort study, 61 young adults with confirmed stroke were followed up for 30 days. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were collected using a study questionnaire. Kaplan-Meier curves, and modified Poisson regression were performed for factors associated with the 30-day mortality outcome. A third of the screened stroke survivors, (61/195) were young adults aged between 18 and 50 years. About two-thirds were male. More than half were diagnosed with ischaemic strokes while 42.6% had a haemorrhagic stroke. Nearly half (29/61) were known hypertensives, 43% (26/61) had a history of alcohol consumption with 95% classified as dependent on CAGE assessment. Ten percent had a prior smoking history while 29% of the female gender had a prior history of oral contraception use. Twenty-three percent (14/61) of the young stroke patients died within 30 days of stroke onset (95% CI: 0.01, 0. 901). A history of smoking (adjusted prevalence ratio: aPR;5. 094, 95% CI: 3.712, 6. 990) and stroke severity National Institutes of Health Stroke score (NIHSS) >16; Prevalence ratio (PR) -3. 301, 95%CI: 1. 395, 7. 808) and not drinking alcohol (aPR (adjusted prevalence ratio) -7. 247, 95% CI: 4. 491, 11.696) were associated with 30- day mortality. A third of all stroke survivors were young adults. About 23. 3% died within 30 days of stroke onset. Stroke severity and a history of smoking were associated with mortality. Identifying high risk patients and early outpatient follow up may help reduce the 30-day mortality in our settings.

Prevalence and predictors of hypertension among adults in Mbarara City, Western Uganda.

OBJECTIVE: The study aim was to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of hypertension among an urban adult population in Mbarara city, Western Uganda. METHODS: We evaluated blood pressure measurements, social demographic and clinical parameters of adults living in Mbarara city, Uganda. These parameters were extracted from medical records of adults who participated in the Uganda World Kidney Day 2020 health screening activities. A total of 302 adults were evaluated for hypertension using the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association 2017 (blood pressure threshold 130/80 mmHg) and International Society of Hypertension 2020 guidelines (threshold 140/90 mmHg). RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 42.5 years (standard deviation: 15.1) and majority were male 195/302 (64.6%). Using American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association 2017 guidelines, 156/302 (51.7%) adults were newly diagnosed with hypertension compared to 68/302 (22.5%) newly diagnosed with hypertension using International Society of Hypertension 2020 guidelines. Only 23/302 (7.6%) were on treatment. Based on American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association 2017 guidelines, age ≥40 years and overweight/obesity were statistically significant predictors of hypertension (p < 0.05 for all) at multivariate analysis. Using the International Society of Hypertension 2020 guidelines, age ≥40 years predicted hypertension. DISCUSSION: The prevalence of hypertension is high among this urban adult population irrespective of the guidelines used, highlighting the need for hypertension prevention interventions.

Palliative care needs and barriers in an urban Ugandan Emergency Department: A mixed-methods survey of emergency healthcare workers and patients.

Background: Palliative Care offers patient-centered, symptom-focused relief for patients with incurable disease, and early integration of palliative care ensures quality of life and death while reducing medical impoverishment. The Emergency Department is an ideal yet understudied, under-utilized location to initiate palliative care. Objective: To evaluate the palliative care needs of patients with incurable disease and perceived barriers amongst healthcare providers in the Emergency Department of Kiruddu National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. Methods: A mixed methods survey of Emergency Department healthcare workers and patients was conducted. A crosse sectional survey of ninety-nine patients was conducted using the integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale (IPOS). Eleven interviews were conducted with healthcare workers at Kiruddu Hospital, identified by purposive sampling. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data.. Grounded theory approach was used to construct the in depth interview questions, code and analyze qualitative results and collapse these results into final themes. Results: The most common diagnoses were HIV/HIV-TB (32 %), heart disease (18 %), and sickle cell disease (14 %). The prevalence of unmet palliative care needs was substantial: more that 70 % of patients reported untreated symptoms e.g., pain, fatigue, difficulty breathing. Seventy-seven percent of the population reported severe or overwhelming pain. The main barriers to provision of palliative care in the Emergency Department as identified by healthcare workers were: (1) lack of adequate training in palliative care; (2) Challenges due to patient volume and understaffing; (3) the misconception that palliative care is associated with pain management alone; (4) Financial constraints as the greatest challenge faced by patients with incurable disease. Conclusions: We report a high prevalence of unmet palliative care needs among patients in this urban Ugandan Emergency Department, and important barriers reported by emergency healthcare providers. Identification of these barriers offers opportunities to overcome them including harnessing novel mHealth interventions such as clinical support apps or telehealth palliative care consultants. Integration of palliative care in this setting would improve the care of vulnerable patients, provide healthcare workers with an additional care modality while likely adding value to the health system.

Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in active tuberculosis in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

People with tuberculosis (TB) are at risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. We estimated the prevalence of cardiovascular risk (CVR) factors among people with active TB in Africa. This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies from Africa. We searched EMBASE, MEDLINE through PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, mRCTs, Clinical trials.gov, and International Clinical Trials Registry Platform from inception to 31st December 2021. Among 110 eligible studies, 79 (238,316 participants) were included in the meta-analysis for smoking, 67 (52,793 participants) for current alcohol use, 30 (31,450 participants) for hazardous alcohol use, 51 (37,879 participants) for diabetes mellitus (DM), 19 (18,211 participants) for hypertension and 18 (13,910 participants) for obesity. The pooled prevalence was 26.0% (95% confidence interval 22.0-29.0) for smoking, 30.0% (25.0-35.0) for any current alcohol use, 21.0% (17.0-26.0) for hazardous alcohol use, 14.0% (9.0-18.0) for hypertension, 7.0% (6.0-9.0) for DM, and 4.0% (2.0-5.0) for obesity. Cost-effective strategies are needed to screen for CVR factors among people with active TB in Africa.

Comparison of the health-related quality of life of end stage kidney disease patients on hemodialysis and non-hemodialysis management in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life is recognized as a key outcome in chronic disease management, including kidney disease. With no national healthcare coverage for hemodialysis, Ugandan patients struggle to pay for their care, driving families and communities into poverty. Studies in developed countries show that patients on hemodialysis may prioritize quality of life over survival time, but there is a dearth of information on this in developing countries. We therefore measured the quality of life (QOL) and associated factors in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients in a major tertiary care hospital in Uganda. METHODS: Baseline QOL measurement in a longitudinal cohort study was undertaken using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form Ver 1.3. Patients were recruited from the adult nephrology unit if aged > 18 years with an estimated glomerular filtration rate ≤ 15mls/min/1,73m2. Clinical, demographic and micro-financial information was collected to determine factors associated with QOL scores. RESULTS: Three hundred sixty-four patients (364) were recruited, of whom 124 were on hemodialysis (HD) and 240 on non-hemodialysis (non-HD) management. Overall, 94.3% of participants scored less than 50 (maximum 100). Mean QOL scores were low across all three principal domains: physical health (HD: 33.14, non-HD: 34.23), mental health (HD: 38.01, non-HD: 38.02), and kidney disease (HD: 35.16, non-HD: 34.00). No statistically significant difference was found between the overall quality of life scores of the two management groups. Breadwinner status (p < 0.001), source of income (p0.026) and hemodialysis management type (p0.032) were the only factors significantly associated with QOL scores, and this was observed in the physical health and kidney disease principal domains only. No factors were significantly associated with scores for the mental health principal domain and/or overall QOL score. CONCLUSION: The quality of life of Ugandan patients with ESRD has been found to be lower across all three domains of the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form than reported anywhere in the world, with no difference observed between the non-HD and HD management groups. Interventions targeting all domains of QOL are needed among patients with ESRD in Uganda and, potentially, in other resource limited settings.

Health-related quality of life, palliative care needs and 12-month survival among patients with end stage renal disease in Uganda: protocol for a mixed methods longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of chronic kidney disease is on the rise globally and in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to its "silent" nature, many patients often present with advanced disease. At this point options for care are often limited to renal replacement therapies such as hemodialysis and kidney transplantation. In resource limited settings, these options are associated with catastrophic expenditures and increased household poverty levels. Early palliative care interventions, if shown to ensure comparable quality of life (QoL), can significantly mitigate this by focusing care on comfort, symptom control and QoL rather than primarily on prolonging survival. METHODS: A mixed methods longitudinal study, recruiting patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) on hemodialysis or conservative management and following them up over 12 months. The study aims are to: 1) measure and compare the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores of patients with ESRD receiving hemodialysis with those receiving conservative management, 2) measure and compare the palliative care needs and outcomes of patients in the two groups, 3) explore the impact of treatment modality and demographic, socio-economic and financial factors on QoL and palliative care needs and outcomes, 4) review patient survival over 12 months and 5) explore the patients' lived experiences. The Kidney Disease Quality Of Life Short Form version 1.3 (KDQOL-SF) will be used to measure HRQoL; the African Palliative Care Association Palliative care Outcome Score (APCA POS) and the Palliative care Outcome Score for renal symptoms (POS-S Renal) will be used to assess palliative care needs and outcomes; and semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore the patients' experiences of living with ESRD. Data collection will be carried out at 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. DISCUSSION: To the best of our knowledge, no similar study has been conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. This will be an important step towards raising awareness of patients' need and preferences and the strengths and limitations of available health care services for ESRD in resource limited settings.

Prevalence and correlates of proteinuria in Kampala, Uganda: a cross-sectional pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in sub-Saharan Africa, few community-based screenings have been conducted in Uganda. Opportunities to improve the management of CKD in sub-Saharan Africa are limited by low awareness, inadequate access, poor recognition, and delayed presentation for clinical care. Therefore, the Uganda Kidney Foundation engaged key stakeholders in performing a screening event on World Kidney Day. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional pilot study in March 2013 from a convenience sample of adult, urban residents in Kampala, Uganda. We advertised the event using radio and television announcements, newspapers, billboards, and notice boards at public places, such as places of worship. Subsequently, we screened for proteinuria, hypertension, fasting glucose impairment, and obesity in a central and easily-accessible location. RESULTS: We enrolled 141 adults most of whom were female (57 %), young (64 %; 18-39 years), and had a professional occupation (52 %). The prevalence of proteinuria (13 %; 95 % confidence interval [CI] 7-19 %), hypertension (38 %; 95 % CI 31-47 %), and impaired fasting glucose (13 %; 95 % CI 9-20 %) were high in this study population. Proteinuria was most prevalent among young (18-39 years) adults (n = 14; 16 %) and among those who reported a history of alcohol intake (n = 10; 32 %). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of proteinuria was high among a convenience sample of urban residents in a sub-Saharan African setting. These results represent an important effort by the Ugandan Kidney Foundation to increase awareness and recognition of CKD, and they will help formulate additional epidemiological studies on NCDs in Uganda which are urgently needed and now feasible.

Acute kidney injury among adult patients with sepsis in a low-income country: clinical patterns and short-term outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of sepsis. We determined the prevalence of AKI among adult patients with sepsis on the medical wards in a low-income country and described their clinical pattern and outcomes at discharge. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of sepsis-related AKI on the adult medical wards of Mulago National Referral Hospital between January and April 2013. All patients meeting the American College of Chest Physicians (ACP) sepsis criteria were recruited. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and ultrasonography data were recorded and all patients with AKI were followed up to a maximum of 2 weeks. Proportional analysis was carried out and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated in the bivariate analysis. RESULTS: Of 387 patients recruited, 217 (55.6%) were male and the average age was 37 years (range18-90 years). The prevalence of sepsis-related AKI was 16.3%. Age >59 years (p = 0.023), a postural drop in systolic blood pressure of >9 mmHg (p = 0.015) and a white blood cell count >12,000 cells/mL (p = 0.003) were significantly associated with AKI. In-hospital mortality among patients with AKI was 21% (13/63). 59% (20/49) of patients who were discharged alive or were still on the wards after 2 weeks had persistent kidney injury. Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN) Stage 3 was significantly associated with persistence of kidney injury (p = 0.001). None of the patients requiring dialysis or ICU care received either because of limited access. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence, morbidity and mortality due to AKI among sepsis patients in Uganda is very high and limited access to dialysis and ICU care is a major factor in poor outcomes for these patients.

ACE-I/ARB therapy prior to contrast exposure: what should the clinician do?

Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is now one of the three leading causes of acute kidney injury in the world. A lot is known about the risk factors of CIN, yet it remains a major cause of morbidity, end stage renal disease, prolonged hospital stay, and increased costs as well as a high mortality. Many patients undergoing contrast-based radiological investigations are treated with angiotensin converting inhibitors (ACE-Is) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) for their cardiac and renal benefits and their known mortality benefits. However, controversy exists among clinicians as to whether ACE-Is and ARBs should be continued or discontinued prior to contrast media exposure. In this paper we review the current evidence on ACE-I/ARB therapy for patients undergoing procedures involving use of contrast media and provide recommendations as to whether these drugs should be continued or held prior to contrast exposure.