The Association of Kidney Function Monitoring Adherence and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate Changes Among Patients At-Risk for Chronic Kidney Disease.

BACKGROUND: Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcome in 2012 has provided recommendations to prevent CKD progression by monitoring kidney function periodically according to the CKD stage and the clinician's adherence to these guidelines is important. This is the first study on the relationship between adherence to monitoring renal function and changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in patients at risk for CKD in Indonesia. METHODS: This study was a comparative observational study with a cross-sectional approach. Research subjects were electronic medical record data from the Hasan Sadikin General Hospital information system (SIRS) data collected with the SQL Server Report Builder and "HCLAB" applications on patients at risk for CKD at the Hasan Sadikin General Hospital's Outpatient Clinic from January 2018 to March 2020. The patients' data were taken by the total sampling technique and then processed with the Chi-Square test. RESULTS: From 376 subjects, the results showed that poor adherence in renal function monitoring would increase the risk of decreasing eGFR by 1.51 times compared to good monitoring adherence (PR 1.51 95% CI (1.172 - 1.935); p-value 0.007). The eGFR changes were significant (p-value 0.002) with mean 10.84 ml/min/1.73m2 (95% CI: 4.17 - 17.50). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated that poor renal function monitoring adherence had an association with a decrease in eGFR in a group of patients at risk for CKD.

Iron Overload in Transfusion-Dependent Indonesian Thalassemic Patients.

Thalassemia is a genetic disease caused by disruption of globin chain synthesis leading to severe anemia and thus regular blood transfusion is necessary. However, there have been known transfusions-related consequences, including iron overload and multi-organ damage. The aims of this study were to evaluate liver and cardiac function in youth and adult transfusion-dependent Indonesian thalassemic patients and to assess its correlation with serum ferritin levels, as well as T2 ∗ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Transfusion-dependent thalassemic (TDT) outpatients (n = 66; mean age, 21.5 ± 7.2 years) were carried out for the complete assessment consisting of blood test including liver enzyme and serum ferritin, followed by electrocardiography (ECG) and echocardiography. Subjects were also divided by serum ferritin levels into three groups: < 2500 ng/mL, 2500-5000 ng/mL, and >5000 ng/mL. Additionally, subgroup analysis in patients with T2∗ MRI assessment was conducted. In terms of age of first blood transfusion, subjects with ferritin >5000 ng/mL were the youngest among others. The alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels in group with serum ferritin >5000 ng/mL were significantly higher than those of the group with serum ferritin <2500 ng/mL. Additionally, youth and adult TDT patients whose serum ferritin >5000 ng/mL had significantly lower tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) when compared with those who had serum ferritin <2500 ng/mL. Similarly, TAPSE in patients with moderate cardiac siderosis based on cardiac T2∗ MRI was significantly lower than those without cardiac siderosis. There was significant, but only moderate correlation between serum ferritin and cardiac T2∗ MRI. Based on these findings, it is important to routinely monitor iron accumulation-related complications, including liver and cardiac damage in youth and adult TDT patients.