The overall study findings indicated a significant correlation between the levels of anxiety and depression in patients on hemodialysis. Patients with high levels of anxiety had higher levels of depression and those with high depression scores had higher anxiety scores.

Background and Objectives: Anxiety–depression of patients undergoing hemodialysis has a strong relation with the levels of anxiety–depression of their caregivers. The aim of this study was to evaluate anxiety–depression of dialysis patients and their caregivers. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 414 pairs of patients and caregivers from 24 hemodialysis centers of Greece completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The statistical analysis of the data was performed through the Statistical Program SPSS version 20.0. The statistical significance level was set up at 5%. Results: The mean age of patients was 64 (54.06–72.41) years old and the mean duration of hemodialysis was 36 (16–72) months. The mean age of caregivers was 54 (44–66) years old. Of the total sample, 17.1% (n = 71) of patients had high levels of anxiety and 12.3% (n = 51) had high levels of depression. Additionally, 27.8% (n = 115) of caregivers had high levels of anxiety and 11.4% (n = 47) had high levels of depression. Caregivers had higher levels of anxiety when their patients had high levels of anxiety as well (42.3%). Additionally, they had higher levels of depression when their patients had high levels of depression as well (17.6%). Conclusions: The results of this study showed a significant association between the levels of anxiety and depression among patients and caregivers. There is a necessity for individualized assessment of dialysis patients and their caregivers and the implementation of specific interventions for reducing the levels of anxiety and depression among them.

Acute kidney injury is one of the most frequent problems occurring in the critically ill patients of the intensive care units and it is well established that it increases both morbidity and mortality in these patients. Moreover, despite technological and pharmaceutical advances during the last decades, the incidence as well as the mortality associated with acute kidney injury in these patients remains unchanged. Creatinine, the most common renal dysfunction biomarker in use, has many disadvantages, such as time delay in its increase and the influence by other factors on its serum concentration, such as age, gender, muscle mass, etc. Hence, the need for better renal biomarkers in order to timely intervene for acute kidney injury prevention is imperative. The lack of an early biomarker is an obstacle for the development of new acute kidney injury prevention strategies. With the incidence of acute kidney injury reaching epidemic dimensions, the need for novel markers is urgent. During the last years, the research for finding such biomarkers has been intense. The purpose of the present article is to review the studies which have tested the predictive ability of those markers (in urine and/or plasma) for early detection of acute kidney injury in the mixed adult intensive care unit population and underline the potential limitations encountered in the various studies.

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The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of caregivers of patients with chronic diseases, assess their perceived burden, and investigate factors influencing this burden. Seventy-three patient-attendants (43 men and 30 women) participated in the pilot-research conducted by two clinics. Of them, 68% attended patients with a malignant disease and 32% attended patients in the end stage of renal disease. Based on questionnaire data, the influence of the social support was studied, in particular that of family members or through state programmers. Family members are the primary caregivers (spouses 51%, children 29%, and others 20%). Psychological support is the main important help that they need and there are a small number of caregivers who have access to a network of medical and social support. It is found that the family still remains the main supporting mechanism for attendants and patients in our population.