ORLANDO—Patients with gram-negative peritonitis (GNP) undergoing early catheter removal have a higher rate of permanent transfer to hemodialysis but a lower death rate compared with GNP patients not having their catheter removed, according to study findings presented here at the 2008 Annual Dialysis Conference.

ORLANDO—Patients with gram-negative peritonitis (GNP) undergoing early catheter removal have a higher rate of permanent transfer to hemodialysis but a lower death rate compared with GNP patients not having their catheter removed, according to study findings presented here at the 2008 Annual Dialysis Conference.

Ascorbate deficiency is common among peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients and can be identified readily with serum ascorbate measurements, researchers in Australia report.

Ascorbate deficiency is common among peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients and can be identified readily with serum ascorbate measurements, researchers in Australia report.

DaVita Inc., has launched DaVita Diet Helper to make kidney-friendly meals easy to plan, prepare, and track.

SAN DIEGO—A catheter-chewing cockatoo may have led clinicians to a new tool for the treatment of peritoneal dialysis (PD)-related zygomycete peritonitis. While these infections are rare, they carry a high mortality rate even with treatment. Now, a case study presented here at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in San Diego points to posaconazole as a potentially useful for disseminated zygomycosis.

PERITONITIS IS a frequent complication of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and the most common cause of CAPD failure. About 60% of patients receiving CAPD will have at least one episode of peritonitis during the first year of this mode of dialysis, according to Ram Gokal, MD, Consultant Nephrologist and Honorary Lecturer at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. CAPD peritonitis is associated with catheter loss, adhesions, increased protein loss, return to hemodialysis, and considerable morbidity.

BARCELONA--Pro-inflammatory cytokines are a marker for increased cardiovascular and overall mortality in dialysis patients, new research demonstrates.

PENTRAXIN 3, a mediator of inflammation, is markedly elevated in patients on hemodialysis (HD) but not in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) or in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) not on dialysis, according to researchers.

Serum levels of fetuin-A are a predictor of all-cause, cardiovascular, and non-cardiovascular mortality in dialysis patients, a Dutch study found.