Elderly patients are at a higher risk for inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion when treated with antidepressants. In response to severe depressive symptoms, we initiated treatment with citalopram of an 81-year-old female patient with slightly reduced sodium and chloride levels. The sodium and chloride levels decreased continuously during treatment with citalopram; six days after the citalopram was discontinued, sodium and chloride levels returned to normal. We then switched treatment to mirtazapine. Close monitoring revealed that the patient's sodium and chloride levels never decreased and the patient did not relapse for more than two months. This case study indicates that treatment with citalopram may worsen preexisting hyponatremia. Mirtazapine appears to be safe for use in high-risk, elderly patients.

ABSTRACT. The objectives of this study were to evaluate whether adequate observation of abdominal pathologic features related to peritoneal dialysis (PD) was possible with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) under routine conditions, i.e., against the background of the dialysate and without contrast medium. For 16 male and seven female patients (mean age, 51.8 ± 15.0 yr; mean duration of PD, 324 ± 542 d), 25 peritoneal MRI studies were performed with the intraperitoneal dialysate as usual. Indications were symptoms or combinations of symptoms, such as leakage or abdominal wall edema (n = 3), bloody dialysate (n = 4), suspected herniation (n = 1), suspected ultrafiltration failure (n = 2), and abdominal pain (n = 5), or routine assessment after initiation of PD (n = 12). The MRI protocol, which was performed with a 1.0-T scanner, consisted of breath-hold, coronal and transverse, T2-weighted, half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo sequences, using a standard body-array coil. MRI studies were well tolerated and successfully completed for all except two patients. Results indicated a leak along the catheter (n = 1), a leak in an umbilical hernia (n = 1), suspected leakage (n = 1), hernias (n = 5, in three patients), intraperitoneal adhesions (n = 5, in four patients), a ruptured ovarian cyst (n = 1), and pleural effusions (n = 4). Pathologic findings unrelated to PD or located extra-abdominally were observed in 19 of the 25 studies. The catheter tip position was easily identified for all patients. In conclusion, this first report on peritoneal MRI using only dialysate as the “contrast medium” indicates that MRI permits detailed observation of all relevant, PD-related, abdominal pathologic features against the dialysate background, thus avoiding system contamination (and thus the risk of peritonitis).

In Austria, patients with end-stage renal disease caused by polycystic kidney disease are less frequently treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD) than patients with noncystic renal diseases (6% versus 8%). In contrast, the United States renal data system reports that more than one fifth of patients with polycystic kidney disease choose PD as their initial form of renal replacement therapy. The reasons for this difference are unknown. Extrarenal manifestations of the disease, such as diverticulosis, development of hernias or vascular aneurysms, may theoretically promote the occurrence of complications typically related to PD. However, studies undertaken to clarify these questions did not find any difference in the rates of peritonitis caused by diverticulosis or Gram-negative bacteria, and no differences were seen with respect to vascular complications. Nevertheless, in comparison with the general population, patients with polycystic kidney disease are more likely to develop hernias, and the incidence of herniation may be further increased by PD. In conclusion, patients with polycystic kidney disease who also have abdominal complaints such as meteorism and discomfort, or lumbago resulting from the markedly enlarged kidneys, should not be actively advised to have PD treatment. The same is true for patients with recurrent hernias. However, the technical survival, quality of dialysis, duration of therapy and rates of complications in PD are comparable in patients with cystic or noncystic kidney disease, and therefore all patients with polycystic kidney disease who do not have abdominal complaints or history of recurrent hernias should be informed that PD is an adequate form of renal replacement therapy, equally effective as hemodialysis.

Although a well-known complication after transplantation, multiple non-skin malignancies within a patient are rare. We report on a kidney transplant recipient who over the course of 20 years developed breast cancer twice, a uroepithelial carcinoma, and myelodysplasia transforming into acute leukaemia. Breast cancer was treated as usual. The transitional cell carcinoma was managed with partial cyst ureterectomy with transposition of the native ureter to the graft. Withdrawal of immunosuppression followed under a “watchful waiting” regime. In conclusion, alertness is requested regarding development of malignancies. Creative solutions are necessary in the management of such patients. Under exceptional circumstances, withdrawal of immunosuppression may be an option.

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