Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a complex disorder for which currently there is no accepted definition. Having a uniform standard for diagnosing and classifying AKI would enhance our ability to manage these patients. Future clinical and translational research in AKI will require collaborative networks of investigators drawn from various disciplines, dissemination of information via multidisciplinary joint conferences and publications, and improved translation of knowledge from pre-clinical research. We describe an initiative to develop uniform standards for defining and classifying AKI and to establish a forum for multidisciplinary interaction to improve care for patients with or at risk for AKI. Members representing key societies in critical care and nephrology along with additional experts in adult and pediatric AKI participated in a two day conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in September 2005 and were assigned to one of three workgroups. Each group's discussions formed the basis for draft recommendations that were later refined and improved during discussion with the larger group. Dissenting opinions were also noted. The final draft recommendations were circulated to all participants and subsequently agreed upon as the consensus recommendations for this report. Participating societies endorsed the recommendations and agreed to help disseminate the results. The term AKI is proposed to represent the entire spectrum of acute renal failure. Diagnostic criteria for AKI are proposed based on acute alterations in serum creatinine or urine output. A staging system for AKI which reflects quantitative changes in serum creatinine and urine output has been developed. We describe the formation of a multidisciplinary collaborative network focused on AKI. We have proposed uniform standards for diagnosing and classifying AKI which will need to be validated in future studies. The Acute Kidney Injury Network offers a mechanism for proceeding with efforts to improve patient outcomes.

Acute Kidney Injury Network: report of an initiative to improve outcomes in acute kidney injury

2018 AHA/ACC/AACVPR/AAPA/ABC/ACPM/ADA/AGS/APhA/ASPC/NLA/PCNA Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines

Review of recent research on hepatitis C therapy for 54th annual meeting of the American association for the study of liver diseases

结节病易误诊,据王洪武等~([1])收集国内18篇关于此病误诊的文献,误诊率高达63.2%,当然有误诊就会有误治,如孙永昌等~([2])报道26例结节病在影像学检查诊断的第一印象中拟诊结核5例,其中就有2例完成规范的抗结核治疗,为此应引起临床对本病诊治的重视。

Sarcoidosis

The latest advances in hepatology were presented in oral and poster presentations. In order to cover the varying subspecialties, the sessions were divided into various sections including 'Acute Liver Failure and Artificial Liver Support', 'Biliary Tract and Immunologic Liver Diseases', 'Cellular and Molecular Biology', 'Clinical and Experimental Hepatobiliary Surgery', 'Hepatotoxicity and Cell Death', 'Transport and Biliary Physiology', 'Viral Hepatitis', 'Evaluation and Treatment of Biliary Disease', 'Necrosis/Apoptosis', 'Portal Hypertension', 'Blood Flow and Vascular Disorders of Cirrhosis', 'Liver Transplantation', 'Fibrogenesis', 'Hepatocellular Carcinoma', 'Metabolism and Genetic Disease', and 'Public Policy, Epidemiology and Decision Analysis'. Drug therapy focused on treatments for viral hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, and recurrent viral disease following liver transplant. High dose interferon therapy or various combinations of interferon/ribavirin (ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc) therapy seem to offer the best current therapy for chronic HCV. PEGylated interferon (F Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd) offers hope for treatment and histologic improvement in patients with chronic HCV. Following liver transplantation, combination interferon/ribavirin therapy may also find success, but caution with new potent immunosuppressant monoclonal antibodies is advised. For HBV, intramuscular H-BIG (NABI) appears to be effective and less costly than iv H-BIG administration following liver transplantation. Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation may hold promise over conventional ethanol injection therapy for small hepatocellular carcinoma. Autoimmune hepatitis may respond to tacrolimus therapy whereas budesonide therapy did not provide any advantage to prednisone therapy. For primary biliary cirrhosis, eicosapentate and ursodeoxycholic acid may provide benefit to some patients while silymarin from milk thistle did not provide any additional benefit. In primary sclerosing cholangitis, high dose ursodeoxycholic acid may provide benefit. Ursodeoxycholic acid may also provide benefit for mothers with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy by decreasing pruritus, lowering laboratory values and allowing deliveries to occur closer to term.

Digestive disease week 2000. American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases

This study aimed to investigate the association between asthma and risk of myasthenia gravis (MG) using the method of systematic review and meta-analysis. Potentially eligible studies were identified from Medline and EMBASE databases from inception to July 2020 using search strategy that comprised terms for “Asthma” and “Myasthenia Gravis”. Eligible cohort study must consist of one cohort of individuals with asthma and another cohort of individuals without asthma. Then, the study must report relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) of incident MG between the groups. Eligible case–control studies must include cases with MG and controls without MG. Then, the study must explore their history of asthma. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% CIs of the association between asthma status and MG must be reported. Point estimates with standard errors were retrieved from each study and were combined together using the generic inverse variance method. A total of 6,835 articles were identified. After two rounds of independent review by five investigators, two cohort studies and three case–control studies met the eligibility criteria and were included into the meta-analysis. Pooled analysis showed that asthma was significantly associated with risk of MG with the pooled risk ratio of 1.38 (95% CI 1.02–1.86). Funnel plot was symmetric, which was not suggestive of publication bias. The current study found a significant association between asthma and increased risk of MG.

/pdf/the-association-between-asthma-and-risk-of-myasthenia-gravis-4gsn2rpohk.pdf

The Association Between Asthma and Risk of Myasthenia Gravis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background/Objectives: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the common gastrointestinal disorders worldwide. Recent epidemiologic studies have suggested that use of statins may lower the risk of GERD although the results from different studies were inconsistent. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted with the aim to summarize all available data. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed using MEDLINE and EMBASE database from inception to December 2017. Cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies that compared the risk of GERD among statin users versus nonusers were included. Pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random-effect, generic inverse variance method. Results: A total of 4 studies (1 case control, 1 cohort, and 2 cross-sectional studies) with 14,505 participants met the eligibility criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The risk of GERD among statin users was numerically lower than nonusers with the pooled OR of 0.89 but the result did not achieve statistical significance (95% CI, 0.60–1.33). The statistical heterogeneity in this study was moderate (I2 = 54%). Conclusions: The current meta-analysis found that the risk of GERD was numerically lower among statin users although the pooled result did not reach statistical significance. Therefore, more studies are still needed to further clarify this potential benefit of statins.

Statins and gastroesophageal reflux disease: A meta-analysis.

Background: An increased risk of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases has been observed in immune-mediated disease but the risk in patients with sarcoidosis is not known. Objectives: This study was undertaken to characterize the risk of GI diseases in patients with sarcoidosis. Methods: A population-based cohort of 345 incident cases of sarcoidosis among Olmsted County, Minnesota residents in 1976-2013 was identified. A cohort of 345 sex and age-matched comparators were also identified from the same underlying population. Medical records of both groups were reviewed for GI diseases. Cox models adjusted for age, sex and calendar year were used to compare the rate of development of GI diseases between the groups. In addition, Cox models were used to evaluate the association between use of immunosuppressive agents and the development of GI diseases among patients with sarcoidosis. Results: GI events occurred in 101 cases and 63 comparators, corresponding to an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.90 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.38-2.61). Patients with sarcoidosis had an increased risk for both upper (HR 1.90; 95%CI 1.27-2.83) and lower GI events (HR 1.97; 95%CI 1.27-3.05) relative to comparators. By disease type, patients with sarcoidosis had a significantly elevated risk of upper GI ulcer, upper GI hemorrhage and diverticulitis. Regarding medication use, the only significant association was an increased risk of upper GI events among biologic agent users (HR 11.09; 95%CI 2.16-56.97). Conclusion: Patients with sarcoidosis have a higher risk of both upper and lower GI events compared with subjects without sarcoidosis. (Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis 2018; 35: 239-244).

Risk of gastrointestinal events among patients with sarcoidosis: A population-based study 1976-2013

Acid base: back to the basics of Henderson-Hasselbalch.

Background It is still unclear whether patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) have an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Objective We aimed to investigate the association between AD and risk of RA using systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods We searched Medline and EMBASE up to April 2021 using search strategy, including terms for "atopic dermatitis" and "rheumatoid arthritis." Eligible cohort study must compare the incidence of RA between patients with AD and comparators without AD. Eligible case-control study must recruit cases with RA and controls without RA. Then, the study must compare the prevalence of AD between the groups. Point estimates with standard errors from each study were combined using the generic inverse variance method. Results The meta-analysis found that AD patients had a significantly higher risk of incident RA than individuals without AD with a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 1.30 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.17-1.44; I2, 48%). Subgroup analysis revealed a significantly higher risk of RA in cohort study subgroup (pooled OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.25-1.50; I2, 63%) but not case-control study subgroup (pooled OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.77-1.28; I2, 10%). Conclusions This study found a significantly higher risk of incident RA among AD patients.

Patompong Ungprasert

Papers

The Association Between Asthma and Risk of Myasthenia Gravis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Statins and gastroesophageal reflux disease: A meta-analysis.

Risk of gastrointestinal events among patients with sarcoidosis: A population-based study 1976-2013

Acid base: back to the basics of Henderson-Hasselbalch.

Atopic Dermatitis is a Risk Factor for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.