Vitamin E-coated dialysis membranes (VECMs) may improve outcomes in hemodialysis patients, Italian researchers reported in the International Journal of Artificial Organs (2008;31:545-552).

TORONTO—Study results confirm the wisdom of an expert consensus that nephrologists should not overuse the diagnosis of chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN).

TORONTO—Dialysis centers that serve more than 62 patients and those with a late shift have higher proportions of patients receiving home dialysis, as do centers with greater percentages of younger patients and individuals who work full- or part-time, a study shows.

SAN FRANCISCO—Heavy consumption of artificially sweetened beverages was associated with almost twice the risk of diabetes in a long-term, community-based prospective study, researchers reported here at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting.

TREATMENT WITH angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal CVD events in hemodialysis patients, according to researchers at the Saitama Medical University in Saitama, Japan.

AGE IS AN independent prognostic factor in women, but not men, with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to researchers.

PARIS—Older women undergoing surgery for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) fare as well as younger women with respect to perioperative results, but they experience worse two-year outcomes, researchers reported here during a poster session at the Fourth International Consultation on Incontinence.

SAN FRANCISCO—Dietary salt supplementation may reduce the antihypertensive effects of the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) telmisartan in patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension, investigators reported at the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association. The effect is independent of habitual sodium dietary status.

CONTRARY TO original findings from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), finasteride does not increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer, according to a new analysis.

ORAL ESTROGEN therapy in post-menopausal women is associated with loss of renal function, according to Canadian researchers.