CKD is associated with worse cardiac autonomic function. Haemodialysis therapy for 3 months improves some indices of HRV, and this effect is more pronounced in non-diabetic subjects. Our findings suggest that the improvement of HRV after the initiation of chronic dialysis therapy can ameliorate clinical outcomes and survival in patients with end-stage renal disease.

Pseudohyperkalemia, a rise in serum potassium concentration with concurrently normal plasma potassium concentration, is an in vitro phenomenon that was first described 50 years ago. It was originally attributed to the release of potassium from platelets during platelet aggregation and degranulation, and a significant correlation between pseudohyperkalemia and platelet count was established. During the last decade, new data were added to this phenomenon. In particular, pseudohyperkalemia was defined when serum potassium concentration exceeded that of plasma by more than 0.4 mmol/L provided that samples are collected under strict techniques, remain at room temperature and are tested within 1 hour from blood specimen collection. Moreover, it is positively correlated to (1) thrombocytosis due to the release of potassium from platelet granules during coagulation, (2) erythrocytosis due to the dilution of the released potassium in smaller volumes of serum, and (3) the presence of activated platelets, which have the capability of aggregation at a higher speed and release more potassium during degranulation. However, pseudohyperkalemia may be "masked" when in a state of hypokalemia because potassium moves back into the intracellular space in vitro, and the phenomenon is ameliorated or even not detected.

No abstract

In SCD, there is a 39% prevalence of acute veno-occlusive involvement of the liver, a figure that is much higher than previously reported. The type of injury is mostly mixed hepatocellular-cholestatic or purely cholestatic and its course is usually benign. Liver involvement occurs more often in patients with normal spleen function and is not associated with the overall severity of the acute episode, both observations being unreported previously.