No abstract

The Brazilian Peritoneal Dialysis Multicenter Study (BRAZPD) was launched in December 2004 aiming to collect data monthly and continuously from a representative cohort, allowing for a continuous snapshot of the peritoneal dialysis (PD) reality in the country. This is an observational study of PD patients comprising follow-up from December 2004 to February 2007 (mean follow-up of 13.6 months-ranging from 1 to 26 months) in 114 Brazilian centers. All centers report data through a central web-based database. After an initial baseline retrospective data collection, all patients are followed prospectively every month until they drop out from the PD program. Total number of patients recruited until February 2007 was 3226 (2094 incident patients). Mean age was 54+/-19 years (37% above 65 years old), with 55% females and 64% Caucasians. The more frequent causes of renal failure were diabetic nephropathy (34%), renal vascular disease associated with hypertension (26%), and glomerulopathies (13%). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (76%), diabetes (36%), and ischemic heart disease (23%). Automated PD (APD) was the modality utilized in 53%. The estimated overall peritonitis rate was 1 episode per 30 patient-months (most frequently due to Staphylococcus aureus). The total dropout rate was 33%, mainly due to deaths, whereas 20% of dropouts were due to renal transplant. The gross mortality was 17.6% and the main causes of mortality were cardiovascular diseases (40%) and infections (15%). The initial results of this first Brazilian PD registry provide a unique opportunity to develop future clinical studies addressing specific PD questions in the Brazilian reality and context.

SummaryBackground and Objectives Although low socioeconomic status has been considered a contraindication to peritoneal dialysis (PD), no published data clearly link it to poor outcomes. The goal of this study was assessing the effect of income on survival in the Brazilian Peritoneal Dialysis Multicenter Study.Design, setting, participants, & measurements Incident PD patients enrolled in this prospective cohort from December 2004 to October 2007 were divided according to monthly family income. The median age was 59 years, 54% were women, 60% Caucasians, 41% diabetics, and 24% had cardiovascular disease. Most of them were in continuous ambulatory PD, had not received predialysis care, had Ͻ4 school years, and had a family income of Ͻ5 minimum wage (80%). Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the Cox proportional hazards model adjusting the results for age, gender, educational status, predialysis care, first therapy, PD modality, calendar year, and comorbidities.Results There were no differences in technique (log rank test 2 ϭ 4.36) and patient (log rank test 2 ϭ 2.92) survival between the groups. In the multivariate analysis, low family income remained not associated either to worse technique survival (hazard ratio [HR] ϭ 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI] ϭ 0.91 to 1.84) or to patient survival (HR ϭ 1.40; 95% CI ϭ 0.99 to 1.99).Conclusions According to these results, economic status is not independently associated with outcomes in this large cohort and should not be considered a barrier for PD indication.

The substitution of glucose for icodextrin for the long dwell improved insulin resistance measured by HOMA index in non-diabetic APD patients.

Introduction: In an attempt to decrease mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease, an increase in the lifetime of these patients without much focus on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was pursued for a long period of time. However, lately, an improvement in the quality of this extended lifetime has focused on both the physical as well as the social and emotional aspects, as these parameters may be associated with clinical outcomes in end-stage renal disease patients. Aim: To evaluate the impact of self-determined HRQOL at admission on survival of incident peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. Patients and Methods: A total of 1,624 incident Brazilian PD patients participating in a multicenter prospective cohort study (BRAZPD) were evaluated. HRQOL was assessed using the SF-36, divided into mental and physical components. Cox proportional regression analysis was used to determine the influence ofHRQOL (mental and physical components) on mortality. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses were used to adjust gradually for more potential explanatory variables: first for demographic variables, followed by additional adjustment for socioeconomic, clinical and laboratory variables. The significance level in all analyses was set at p < 0.05. All analyses were carried out with SPSS 17.0. Results: Incident PD patients presented with low HRQOL scores on admission to therapy. Even after correction for sociodemographic variables, comorbidities, PD modality and laboratory parameters, HRQOL (both the mental and the physical components) remained a predictor [HR: 0.97 (CI: 0.95-0.98); HR: 0.97 (CI: 0.96-0.99), respectively] of survival. Conclusion: On admission to therapy, patients presenting with low HRQOL scores for both the mental and the physical components were associated with a higher mortality. These results suggest that early and timely intervention measures to improve the QOL of these patients are important.