BACKGROUND: One of the most important factors affecting the quality of life of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients is nutrition. Prevention of malnutrition increases patients' quality and length of life. In this study, we aimed to determine the frequency of malnutrition, quality of life, and the relationship between them in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). METHOD:The study was conducted with a total of 60 CKD patients including 50 haemodialysis patients and 10 peritoneal dialysis patients. Patients' data associated with socio-demographics, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, triceps skin-fold thickness (TSFT), pre-dialysis systolic and diastolic blood pressure, Kt/V and urea reduction ratio (URR) values, laboratory parameters, Mini-Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) and European Quality of Life 5-Dimensions (EQ5D) scale were recorded. FINDINGS: Of the total 60 patients; 27 were male (45%), 33 were female (55%), 83.3% were receiving haemodialysis treatment (HD), and 16.7% were receiving peritoneal dialysis treatment (PD). The mean MNA-SF score was 10.4 ± 2.8 in the HD group and 10.5 ± 2.9 in the PD group; there was no difference between the scores of the HD and PD groups. The mean EQ5D score was 0.60 ± 0.29 in the HD group and 0.68 ± 0.33 in the PD group, no significant difference was found between the HD group and the PD group. The quality of life was found lower in malnourished group (p=0.001).CONCLUSION: The quality of life needs to be increased by early diagnosis and treatment of malnutrition in patients at risk.

IntroductionAlthough serum-providing blood tubes with a barrier are still widely used due to their significant advantages, the use of blood tubes with a barrier to provide plasma is becoming widespread. We compared 22 analytes in a BD Vacutainer® Barricor LH Plasma tube for local clinical validation of this new lithium heparin tube with a barrier.Materials and methodsSamples from 44 volunteers were collected in different tubes (Becton Dickinson and Company): Z tube without additive (reference), clot-activator tube with gel (SST), lithium heparin tube without gel (LiH), and lithium heparin tube with barrier (Barricor). Analyte concentrations in different tubes were compared with the reference tube. All tubes were also evaluated according to additional testing (different centrifugation durations, blood-sampling techniques and individual differences).ResultsAspartate aminotransferase (AST), glucose (Glc), potassium (K), lactate dehydrogenase (LD), sodium (Na), and total protein (TP) had a significant bias in Barricor (9.19%, - 3.24%, - 4.88%, 21.60%, - 0.40%, 5.03%, respectively) relative to the reference tube. There was no statistical difference between different centrifugation durations and individual differences for AST, K and LD in LiH and/or Barricor (P > 0.05). There was a significant bias for LD between LiH and Barricor in terms of blood-sampling techniques (21.2% and 12.4%, respectively).ConclusionsRecently, the use of plasma has become prominent due to some of its advantages. In this study, plasma AST, K, LD, Glc and TP levels in Barricor were clinically different in comparison to serum. The results of additional tests showed that higher levels of LD in Barricor did not result from haemolysis, and they might be related to other factors including number of platelets, cellular fragility, or functional environment.

Science-based approaches in addressing future risks and challenges for forests require close collaboration among the communities operating different monitoring and research networks as well as experts in process and large-scale modelling. Results of the COST FP0903 conference which took place in October 2010 in Rome, reveal valuable results from different European forest monitoring and research networks. However, the need for closer integration of these activities is obvious. In this paper, representatives from major European networks recommend a new approach for forest monitoring and research in Europe, based on a reasonable number of highly instrumented “supersites” and a larger number of intensive monitoring plots linked to these. This system needs to be built on existing infrastructures but requires increased coordination, harmonisation and a joint long term platform for data exchange and modelling

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