Gender-specific differences in hemodialysis patients: a multicenter longitudinal study from Serbia.

PURPOSE: The study was undertaken with the aim to determine gender-specific differences in incident hemodialysis (HD) patient and their changes over time. METHODS: The retrospective longitudinal closed cohort study involved 441 incident patients starting HD in 2014 and followed for 1-59 (median 43, IQR 40) months. Demographic, clinical data, treatment characteristics, laboratory findings and outcome were abstracted from the patients' medical records. RESULTS: The relative number of males on HD was about twice that of females throughout the five years investigated. At the beginning of the study, no significant differences were found in the main demographic and clinical characteristics except that diabetes was more often the underlying disease in men than in women. Systolic blood pressure decreased over time significantly more in females than in males. Throughout the study spKt/V was significantly higher in females than in males, but it increased in patients of both genders. There were no gender differences for comorbidities, vascular access and the majority of laboratory findings except for higher serum levels of creatinine and CRP in men than in women. Relatively more females were treated with erythropoiesis stimulating agents and phosphate binders than males. Age and malignancy were selected as significant predictors of mortality for both genders, and, in addition, polycystic kidney disease, serum level of albumin and CRP for men, but spKt/V for women. CONCLUSION: Some significant gender differences were observed throughout, while others appeared during the study but none of them were due to gender inequalities in the applied treatment.

Population Pharmacokinetics of Bisoprolol in Hemodialysis Patients with Hypertension.

The aim of our study was to estimate clearance of bisoprolol and reveal the factors that could influence its pharmacokinetic (PK) variability in hypertensive patients on hemodialysis, using the population PK analysis. Parameters associated with plasma concentration of bisoprolol at steady state were analyzed in 63 patients (mean age 62.12 years, mean total weight 69.63 kg) who were hypertensive and on hemodialysis due to severe renal failure using non-linear mixed-effect modeling with ADVAN1 subroutine. The final regression model for the clearance of the drug included only creatinine clearance (CLcr) out of 12 tested covariates. The equation that describes CL of bisoprolol is the following: CL (l/h) = 0.12 + 6.33 * CLcr. These findings suggest that the routine measuring of serum creatinine level may be used to facilitate administration of bisoprolol in patients on hemodialysis.