Active clinical trials for "Kidney Failure, Chronic"

Chronically dialyzed patients and kidney transplant recipients have been identified as particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection due to unavoidable exposure. They have also high rates of comorbid conditions and have varying degrees of immunosuppression, which puts them at risk of developing very severe forms of COVID-19 disease with fatality rates varying from 16% to 32%. In such circumstances vaccination is the only chance to improve their extremely poor prognosis. There is very little published data on the response to vaccination in dialyzed patients and kidney transplant recipients so far. No data are available on the efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19 in patients treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD). Furthermore, given the fact that disturbances of acquired immunity in dialyzed patients are many and diverse it is uncertain whether vaccinating against SARS CoV-2 in these population will result in sufficient immune response and, by consequence, protection against infection. Registration studies on the basis of which population vaccinations are actually conducted were performed only in the general population. There were no dialyzed patients and kidney transplant recipients in the study groups, so these patients are vaccinated with doses and schedules for people without chronic kidney disease. It is not known whether vaccination under such standard schedule produces a sufficient immune response in them and how long it lasts. That's why the aim of this study is to evaluate the humoral and cellular immune response after mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 with which patients treated with renal replacement therapy are vaccinated in Poland. It will be a prospective, observational controlled study conducted in patients treated with renal replacement therapy (hemodialyzed subjects, patients treated with peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplant recipients) vaccinated with mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 according to common rules and manufactures recommendations.The control group will be made up of sex and age matched people without chronic kidney disease.The first goal of the study is to analyze seroconversion rate and titer magnitude of neutralizing IgG and IgA antibodies directed against spike (s) SARS-CoV-2 antigen after the first and the second dose of mRNA vaccine as well as after 3, 6, 9, 12 months after vaccination. The second goal is to evaluate the cellular immune response tested using the ELISPOT method at the same time points as above.The immune response will be compared to patients without chronic kidney disease as well as between hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients.

Majority of patients with hypertension have primary hypertension (without an underlying cause). Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common cause of secondary hypertension, and can be found in 5-10% of patients locally. PA is caused by excessive release of a hormone (aldosterone) from the adrenal glands, which can be unilateral (one gland) or bilateral (both glands). It has been shown that excess aldosterone has other harmful effects in addition to hypertension, such as directly affecting the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, leading to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This is supported by studies showing reversal of these effects after treatment for PA. The investigators aim to assess the long-term cardiovascular, and renal outcomes of patients with PA, compared to patients with essential hypertension.

The purpose of this study is examine whether invasive pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) monitoring could be beneficial for the patients in dialysis treatment. Ten implantable pressure sensors (CardioMEMS ®) will be implanted and the PAPs of the individual participants are recorded during and in between the routine dialysis treatment sessions. This is an exploratory pilot study, where major interest lies in the values and changes in PAP in relation to other hemodynamic parameters among patients in dialysis treatment. Implanted device is only monitoring the patient without any effect on the actual treatment.

Previous research has shown that many patients with kidney failure undergoing chronic hemodialysis (HD) have a very low venous oxygen concentration, which may further decrease during dialysis treatments. This may be due to a variety of factors including anemia, compromised pulmonary function, and chronic fluid volume overload. Previous studies have shown that low venous oxygen concentrations may increase the risk of cardiovascular events, cognitive deficits, and mortality in HD patients. The purpose of this study is to identify patients with hypoxemia during HD treatments and characterize the extent of and implications of their hypoxemia. Specifically, the investigators aim to examine the relationship between central venous oxygen concentration and hemodynamic changes during dialysis treatment. The investigators will evaluate the relationship between cardiac output as measured by the Task Force Monitor and central venous oxygen saturation as measured by the Crit-Line Monitor and Wrist0x2 in HD patient. Data from this study will provide insight into potential mechanisms responsible for side effects associated with dialysis treatment, such as drops in blood pressure and cognitive dysfunction.

Remodulin (Treprostenil sodium) is synthetic prostacyclin analog available as a solution for administration in the intravenous route. It is approved for treatment of class I - pulmonary hypertension functional capacity stage III-IV. A key factor for the success of pulmonary hypertension therapy is maintaining near constant blood level of a given medications along the day. A sudden decrease in the blood levels might lead to rebound phenomenon; abrupt increase in the pulmonary artery pressure which might lead to acute right ventricular failure and even to sudden death. As some PHT patients suffer are on hemo-dialysis therapy due to end-stage renal disease there is a need to document the variation of the blood level along the dialysis cycle.

Sleep disorders are common in patients who have chronic kidney disease (CKD). Insomnia is reported in up to 50% of patients treated with hemodialysis compared to 12% of a control population. Restless leg syndrome (RLS) and periodic limb movement disorder (PLM) have been described in 30 to 70% of patients with end stage kidney disease (ESKD). Patients with CKD have also been reported to have a very high prevalence of sleep apnoea disorder. Conventional hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis do not appear to improve sleep disorders in patients with CKD. There is emerging evidence that nocturnal HD can lead to improvements in sleep quality. Transplantation is thought to improve sleep-related disorders in some but not all patients. Project Aims The aims of this project were three-fold: To perform detailed assessment of sleep quality in a cohort of Irish patients with ESRD To assess the feasability and tolerability of unattended home PSG and wrist actigraphy as diagnostic tools in this cohort To assess the impact of a change in RRT modality on sleep quality in Irish patients with ESRD

Highlighting the relationship between psychological and physical profiles and patient's preference to better understand the patient's treatment preference and improve the information provided.

Stroke disease and cognitive impairment are common in patients established on haemodialysis (HD) for end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Further, initiation of HD appears to transiently increase the risk of stroke. The mechanism by which this occurs is not known. Using ultrasound, patient questionnaires and brain MRI our study will observe changes in cognition and cerebral blood flow whilst receiving HD compared to a non-dialysis day. Transient clinical and ultrasound alterations will be correlated to radiographic changes in cerebral perfusion and structure on MRI to determine the underlying mechanism for the increased stroke risk. The investigators will observe this effect in the immediate and longer term (12 months observation). A greater understanding will allow development of effective preventive strategies.

The purpose of this study is to prospectively evaluate the impact of sleep apnea on the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality of patients with end-stage renal disease.

According to the reports of the United States Renal Data System (USRDS), there is a 25% annual mortality rate with nearly 50% of all reported maintenance hemodialysis (HD) patient deaths attributed to atherosclerosis-related complications. Although traditional risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are common in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, they alone may be insufficient to account for their high prevalence of CVD. Recent evidence demonstrated high plasma homocysteine levels have been established as a risk factor of chronic inflammation and atherosclerosis in patients with ESRD. Malnutrition and inflammation was associated with poor quality of life, morbidity and mortality. We, the researchers at National Taiwan University Hospital, hope to establish the best predictive profile of HD patient outcome. Thus, we establish several protocols to complete this work.