Use of the small-caliber colonoscope reduced pain in female patients, but offered no advantage over standard colonoscopy in male patients. The performance of the small-caliber colonoscope was equivalent to that of the standard colonoscope in terms of cecal intubation rate and time to cecum, regardless of the sex of the patient.

Background/Aims: There is lack of definitive evidence about the association between erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) responsiveness in the pre-dialysis phase and mortality. Therefore, we conducted a hospital-based, retrospective, cohort study to assess the predictive value of ESA response for prognosis in incident hemodialysis patients. Methods: A total of 108 patients without preexisting cardiovascular disease who had been started on maintenance hemodialysis were studied. ESA responsiveness just before starting dialysis was estimated using an erythropoietin resistance index (ERI). The endpoint was defined as all-cause death. Results: During a mean follow-up period of 3.1 ± 1.6 years, 18 (17%) patients died. Overall, the multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the log-transformed ERI remained an independent predictor of all-cause death after adjustment using a propensity score (hazard ratio 2.25, 95% CI 1.25–4.06). Conclusions: Among incident hemodialysis patients, hyporesponsiveness to ESA may be associated with mortality.

Compared with a pediatric colonoscope, the UTC was associated with reduced overall and maximum pain during colonoscopy, with no difference in ADR.

The World Health Organization Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX(®)) was recently developed to estimate the 10-year absolute risk of osteoporotic fracture among the general population. However, the evidence for its use in chronic kidney disease patients has been lacking, and the association between the FRAX(®) and mortality is unknown. Therefore, a hospital-based, prospective, cohort study was conducted to evaluate the predictive ability of the FRAX(®) for mortality in hemodialysis patients. A total of 252 patients who had been started on maintenance hemodialysis, 171 men and 81 women, with a mean age of 67 ± 14 years, was studied. The endpoint was defined as all-cause death. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to calculate hazard ratios and 95 % confidence intervals. During the mean follow-up period of 3.4 ± 2.7 years, 61 deaths occurred. The median (interquartile range) of the FRAX(®) for major osteoporotic fracture was 6.9 (4.6-12.0) % in men and 19.0 (7.6-33.0) % in women. Cumulative survival rates at 5 years after starting dialysis, with the FRAX(®) levels above and below the median, were 51.9 and 87.9 %, respectively, in men and 67.4 and 83.7 %, respectively, in women. Overall, in men, the multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that the log-transformed FRAX(®) remained an independent predictor of death after adjusting by confounding variables. However, in women, the significant association between the FRAX(®) value and the outcome was eliminated if age was put into these models. Among Japanese hemodialysis patients, the FRAX(®) seems to be useful for predicting death, especially in men.

The NT-proBNP concentration just before the first dialysis session is a useful tool for screening for cardiac abnormalities. Considering the wide variation of the NT-proBNP cutoff levels depending on each cardiac abnormality, the digit number could be potentially easier to use for initial risk stratification for cardiac disease in new dialysis patients.