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

[1] Costantino TG, Parikh AK, Satz WA, et al. Ultrasonography-guided peripheral intravenous access versus traditional approaches in patients with difficult intravenous access. Ann Emerg Med 2005;46:456-61. [2] Keyes LE, Frazee BW, Snoey ER, et al. Ultrasound-guided brachial and basilic vein cannulation in emergency department patients with difficult intravenous access. Ann Emerg Med 1999;34:711-4. [3] Bauman M, Braude D, Crandall C. Ultrasound-guidance vs. standard technique in difficult vascular access patients by ED technicians. Am J Emerg Med 2009;27:135-40. [4] Mills CN, Liebmann O, Stone MB, et al. Ultrasonographically guided insertion of a 15-cm catheter into the deep brachial or basilic vein in patientswith difficult intravenous access. Ann EmergMed 2007;50:68-72. [5] Stein J, George B, River G, et al. Ultrasonographically guided peripheral intravenous cannulation in emergency department patients with difficult intravenous access: a randomized trial. Ann Emerg Med 2009;54:33-40.

A case of childhood vasculitis presenting in adulthood.

Background Studies on receipt of statins and risk of multiple myeloma (MM) yielded conflicting results. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted in order to comprehensively investigate the relationship between receipt of statins and risk of MM. Patients and Methods Potentially eligible studies that compared the risk of MM between statin recipients and those who did not receive statins were identified from Medline and Embase databases from inception to August 2019 using a search strategy that comprised terms for “statin” and “multiple myeloma.” To be eligible, cohort studies must have recruited 2 groups of participants, statin recipients and nonrecipients, and followed their participants for incident MM. Eligible case–control studies must have recruited cases of MM and controls without MM, and must have explored the history of receipt of statins. Relative risk, hazard risk ratio, standardized incidence ratio, or odds ratio (OR) of this association must be reported. Relative risk and standard error from each study were extracted and combined using random-effect generic inverse variance. Relative risk of cohort study was used as an estimate for OR to calculate the pooled effect estimate along with the OR of the case–control studies. Results A total of 1744 articles were identified using the search strategy, and 10 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The odds of MM were significantly lower among statin recipients than nonrecipients, with a pooled OR of 0.80 (95% confidence interval, 0.68-0.93; I2 72%). The funnel plot was relatively symmetrical and did not suggest publication bias. Conclusion Receipt of statins is associated with a significant 20% reduction in the odds of MM.

Receipt of Statins Is Associated With Lower Risk of Multiple Myeloma: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Coexistence of Henoch-Schönlein purpura and infective endocarditis in elderly.

Background/objectives Little is known about atrial involvement in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). Recent studies have suggested that atrial arrhythmia, including atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter (AFL), and atrial tachycardia, was common among these patients although the reported prevalence varied considerably across the studies. The current systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted with the aim of comprehensively investigating the prevalence of overall atrial arrhythmia and each atrial arrhythmia subtype in the setting of ARVC by identifying all relevant studies and combining their results together. Methods A comprehensive literature review was conducted by searching for published articles indexed in MEDLINE and EMBASE databases from inception through to 22 September 2019 to identify cohort studies of patients with ARVC that described the prevalence of atrial arrhythmia among the participants. The pooled prevalence across studies was calculated using a random-effect, generic inverse variance method of DerSimonian and Laird with a double arcsine transformation. Results A total of 16 cohort studies with 1986 patients with ARVC were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of overall atrial arrhythmia among patients with ARVC was 17.9% [95% confidence interval (CI), 13.0-24.0%; I 88%], the pooled prevalence of atrial fibrillation of 12.9% (95% CI, 9.6-17.0%; I 78%), the pooled prevalence of AFL of 5.9% (95% CI, 3.7-9.2%; I 70%), and the pooled prevalence of atrial tachycardia of 7.1% (95% CI, 3.7-13.0%; I 49%). Conclusion Atrial arrhythmia is common among patients with ARVC with the pooled prevalence of approximately 18%, which is substantially higher than the reported prevalence of atrial arrhythmia in the general population.

Prevalence of atrial arrhythmia in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective To investigate the pooled incidence or the prevalence of erectile dysfunction, and to assess the risk of erectile dysfunction in patients with atrial fibrillation. Methods A systematic review was carried out in the MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases from inception through January 2018 to identify: (i) studies that reported the incidence and/or prevalence of erectile dysfunction in atrial fibrillation patients; or (ii) studies that assessed the association between atrial fibrillation and erectile dysfunction. Pooled odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using a random effects model. Results Five observational studies (27 841 patients) were enrolled. The pooled estimated prevalence of erectile dysfunction in atrial fibrillation patients was 57% (95% confidence interval 50-64, I2 = 0). A study showed an incidence of newly diagnosed erectile dysfunction in atrial fibrillation patients of 0.96% during the mean follow-up duration of 4.67 ± 3.20 years. There was a significant association of atrial fibrillation with an increased risk of erectile dysfunction, with a pooled odds ratio of 1.79 (95% confidence interval 1.44-2.23, I2 = 0%). The data on the risk of atrial fibrillation development in patients with erectile dysfunction were limited. A study showed the comparable risk of atrial fibrillation in patients with erectile dysfunction (odds ratio 1.03, 95% confidence interval 0.67-1.5), when compared with those without erectile dysfunction. Conclusions The present study suggests a significant association between erectile dysfunction and atrial fibrillation. The overall estimated prevalence of erectile dysfunction among atrial fibrillation patients is 57%. However, despite limited data, the current evidence suggests a low incidence of new erectile dysfunction in atrial fibrillation patients.

Patompong Ungprasert

Papers

A case of childhood vasculitis presenting in adulthood.

Receipt of Statins Is Associated With Lower Risk of Multiple Myeloma: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Coexistence of Henoch-Schönlein purpura and infective endocarditis in elderly.

Prevalence of atrial arrhythmia in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Erectile dysfunction and atrial fibrillation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.