秋元 哲

A 66-year-old women with no history of renal disease was admitted due to a coma and acute kidney injury with a serum creatinine level of 7.44 mg/dL which were ascribed to valacyclovir neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, respectively. She had received valacyclovir at a standard dosage for the treatment of herpes zoster and was finally discharged, having fully returned to her normal baseline mental status with a recovered serum creatinine level of 0.68 mg/dL. We feel that awareness of this pathology remains a challenge for physicians and therefore strongly recommend the further accumulation of experiences similar to our own. Our experience underscores the pitfalls of administering valacyclovir to elderly patients who barely appear to have a favorable renal function. Several concerns regarding the therapeutic management, including blood purification strategies, that emerged in this case are also discussed.

A 28-year-old man was referred and admitted to our hospital due to Escherichia coli O157-mediated hemorrhagic colitis with severe thrombocytopenia. A systemic workup concluded that the patient had acute pancreatitis as well as hemolytic uremic syndrome. The patient was ultimately discharged, with his platelet count having recovered. Our case serves an illustrative example of potentially serious complications of an increasingly recognized public health problem. Systemic studies on this topic are insufficient, and we strongly recommend the further accumulation of more experiences like ours. Several diagnostic and management concerns that emerged in this case are also discussed.

Peritoneal dialysis has been a widely accepted modality for treating end-stage kidney disease, but a regular dialysis schedule can be seriously disrupted by various comorbid conditions requiring surgical intervention. A 40-year-old woman who had been receiving peritoneal dialysis was sequentially but separately complicated by pleuroperitoneal communication and ovarian cancer. Despite the need for temporary interruption of her peritoneal dialysis schedule, it was successfully resumed after the relevant surgeries for each disease. Several concerns regarding overall postoperative dialytic management strategies, including how to deal with the peritoneal dialysis catheter during the postoperative period as well as how long peritoneal dialysis should be interrupted, which remain an unresolved issue in the field of nephrology, are also discussed.

The avoidance of any form of anticoagulation is advised in cases of cholesterol embolization syndrome (CES). We herein describe a case of CES in a man with a history of unprovoked pulmonary embolism for which warfarinization was performed. Despite anecdotal reports of successful anticoagulation in CES patients with certain indications, irreversible renal failure, which was sufficiently severe to require chronic hemodialysis, eventually developed in our patient. Our results emphasize the pitfalls of this procedure, which imply its limited feasibility and safety. Several therapeutic concerns associated with this case are also discussed.

The association between nephrotic syndrome (NS) and a hypercoagulable state has been demonstrated. Controlling the blood clotting activity may therefore be attractive for patients with nephrosis in terms of thromboembolism prophylaxis. We herein report a 75-year-old woman with minimal change disease who developed pains in the right back, groin, and thigh because of retroperitoneal bleeding during prophylactic anticoagulation with unfractionated heparin. Although this procedure has not been accepted as the standard of care for patients with nephrosis, pharmacologic prophylaxis may already be practiced empirically, as in the present patient. We believe that our experience highlights the pitfalls of such a management in patients with nephrosis, implying the need for a diagnostic strategy for identifying those patients with NS who can benefit from prophylactic anticoagulation. Several concerns that emerged in this case are also discussed.

Abdominal hernias are a common cause of bowel obstruction. The major types of abdominal hernias are external or abdominal wall hernias, which occur at areas of congenital or acquired weakness in the abdominal wall. An alternative entity is internal hernias, which are characterized by a protrusion of viscera through the peritoneum or mesentery. We herein present the case of a female peritoneal dialysis patient with bowel obstruction due to an internal hernia. Although an initial work-up did not lead to a correct diagnosis, an exploratory laparotomy revealed that she had intestinal herniation due to a defect in the broad ligament of the uterus, which was promptly corrected by surgery. The concerns about the perioperative dialytic management as well as the diagnostic problems regarding the disease that arose in our experience with the present patient are also discussed.

A 16-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital due to progressive renal dysfunction with an increased serum creatinine (sCr) level of 1.7 mg/dL. Her clinical course without any ocular manifestations and results of drug-induced, lymphocyte-stimulating tests, in addition to a renal histological assessment, initially encouraged us to ascribe the patient’s renal abnormalities to drug-induced acute interstitial nephritis (AIN). Four months later, she started to complain about reduced visual acuity when she was found to have anterior bilateral uveitis despite the recovered renal function with almost constant sCr levels around 0.7 mg/dL. Thus, a diagnosis of tubulointerstitial nephritis and uveitis (TINU) syndrome was finally made. Our case illustrates the difficulties in distinguishing late-onset uveitis TINU syndrome from drug-induced AIN at the time of the renal biopsy, thereby suggesting the importance of a longitudinal follow-up to overcome the potential underdiagnosis of the disease. Several diagnostic conundrums that emerged in this case are also discussed.

Objective Tolvaptan, an oral selective V2-receptor antagonist, is a water diuretic that ameliorates fluid retention with a lower risk of a worsening renal function than conventional loop diuretics. Although loop diuretics predominantly decrease extracellular water (ECW) compared with intracellular water (ICW), the effect of tolvaptan on fluid distribution remains unclear. We therefore examined how tolvaptan changes ICW and ECW in accordance with the renal function. Methods Six advanced chronic kidney disease patients (stage 4 or 5) with fluid retention were enrolled in this study. Tolvaptan (7.5 mg/day) added to conventional diuretic treatment was administered to remove fluid retention. The fluid volume was measured using a bioimpedance analysis device before (day 0) and after (day 5 or 6) tolvaptan treatment. Results Body weight decreased by 2.6%+/- 1.3% (64.4 +/- 6.5 vs. 62.8 +/- 6.3 kg, p=0.06), and urine volume increased by 54.8%+/- 23.9% (1,215 +/- 169 vs. 1,709 +/- 137 mL/day, p=0.03) between before and after tolvaptan treatment. Tolvaptan significantly decreased ICW (6.5%+/- 1.5%, p=0.01) and ECW (7.5%+/- 1.4%, p=0.02), which had similar reduction rates (p=0.32). The estimated glomerular filtration rate remained unchanged during the treatment (14.6 +/- 2.8 vs. 14.9 +/- 2.7 mL/min/1.732 m, p=0.35). Conclusion Tolvaptan ameliorates body fluid retention, and induces an equivalent reduction rate of ICW and ECW without a worsening renal function. Tolvaptan is a novel water diuretic that has a different effect on fluid distribution compared with conventional loop diuretics.

<p>Acute kidney injury (AKI) is caused by diverse pathologies, although it may occasionally result from concurrent renal efflux disturbances. We herein describe a case of AKI in a patient complicated by renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with renal vein and inferior vena cava (IVC) involvement. A neoplastic thrombus which disrupted the blood flow in the renal vein appeared to play a role in the rapid decline in the renal function. Such a scenario has rarely been mentioned in the previous literature describing the cases of RCC complicated by AKI. Concerns regarding the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for RCC are also discussed. </p>

血液透析のための動静脈シャントは非生理的な血行動態であり, ときに諸臓器への悪影響を生じる. 症例は70歳女性. 糖尿病性腎不全のため20XX年3月に自己血管内シャントを造設, 5月より血液透析が開始されたが, 脱血不良のため8月に人工血管を挿入した. ところが, 透析中に全身の間欠的な痙攣が出現するようになり, 種々画像検査では両側内頸動脈閉塞および左椎骨動脈解離を認めた. 内シャント後に潜在的な盗血を生じ, 血液透析により脳血流障害が助長されたと考え, 直ちに人工血管を閉鎖した. 以降は中心静脈カテーテルを用いて血液透析を行ったところ, 痙攣発作は認めなくなり, シンチグラフィでも脳血流の著明な改善が示された. 内シャントに関連した中枢神経症状の報告は散見されるが, 既報例と異なり, 本症例では過剰血流は認めなかった. 動静脈シャント造設に際しては, 吻合血管のみならず, 全身性の血管病変にも注意を向ける必要性が考えられた.

A 48-year-old female was admitted to our hospital presenting with a chief complaint of progressive swelling because of diabetic nephrotic syndrome. Dapagliflozin seemed to play a role in accelerating the patient’s urinary sodium excretion as well as reducing gross fluid retention despite the fact that her nephrotic condition was resistant to furosemide. Our experience emphasizes a potential novel approach to overcoming loop diuretic resistance using this agent among some subsets of type 2 diabetic subjects complicated with severe volume accumulation. We believe that combination treatment consisting of dapagliflozin and furosemide may produce diuretic synergy via sequential nephron blockade. The accumulation of more experience with additional cases similar to ours requires continuous and careful attention.

In this report, we describe the case of an end-stage kidney disease patient with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). A 33-year-old female with TOF was admitted to our hospital with complaints of general fatigue and appetite loss probably due to uremic milieu. She was ultimately treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD) with a favorable clinical course. TOF patients with chronic kidney disease are not exceptional, although the currently available information regarding the association between TOF and renal failure severe enough to require dialysis treatment is limited. We also discuss the complex processes of how and why PD was selected as a mode of chronic renal replacement therapy in this case.

An autogenous arteriovenous fistula has been considered to be the optimal form of vascular access for hemodialysis (HD) in the field of nephrology. Nevertheless, the decision regarding the type of access, whether it be an arteriovenous fistula, an arteriovenous graft, or a central venous cath-eter, must still be individualized. In the present report, we describe the case of a female patient with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated with a hemostatic disorder. Despite the exhausted peripheral vasculature, she required recurrent platelet transfusions for severe thrombocytopenia due to aplastic anemia. The goal of care for this patient was to optimize the dialysis treatment without increasing the bleeding risk. Various concerns regarding the therapeutic conundrums encountered in the case are also discussed. © the authors, publisher and licensee Libertas Academica Limited.

We herein report the case of a 17-year-old man who developed an increased plasma creatinine level (11.1 mg/dL) and oliguria with massive proteinuria (27.3 g/day) four weeks after an abraded wound to his right knee. The histology of the renal biopsy specimens showed diffuse endocapillary proliferative glomerulonephritis with the deposition of nephritis-associated plasmin receptor in the glomerulus. A case of acute kidney injury due to nephrotic syndrome caused by acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis was diagnosed. His renal function and proteinuria were improved with supportive care, including hemodialysis, without the administration of immunosuppressive agents.

Background: Osteoporosis and chronic kidney disease are common conditions in older adults, and often occur concurrently. Bone disease is caused by increased bone turnover accompanying secondary hyperparathyroidism, and by factors such as bone metabolic disorder accompanying kidney disease and postmenopausal or age-related osteoporosis, even in hemodialysis patients. Raloxifene is commonly used for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis in the general population, and may be a treatment option for osteoporosis in hemodialysis patients. However, the effects of raloxifene in hemodialysis patients with type 2 diabetes have not been examined in detail. Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the effects of raloxifene on bone turnover markers and bone density in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus who were undergoing hemodialysis in Japan. Patients and Methods: The subjects were 60 female patients on maintenance hemodialysis (non-diabetic, n=30 diabetic, n=30). Raloxifene hydrochloride (60 mg) was administered to 14 diabetic patients and 14 non-diabetic patients for one year, and these patients were compared with control groups (no raloxifene) of 16 diabetic patients and 16 non-diabetic patients. Serum levels of N-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type I collagen (NTx), bone alkaline phosphatase, and intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) were measured, and bone density was determined by quantitative heel ultrasound at the speed of sound (SOS) in the calcaneus during this period. Results: There were no significant differences in the levels of bone turnover markers except for iPTH after treatment of diabetic and non-diabetic patients with raloxifene for one year. SOS increased after treatment with raloxifene, but was significantly decreased in the control groups. Treatment with raloxifene resulted in a significant decrease in NTx and a significant increase in SOS in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients. There were no significant differences between the diabetic and non-diabetic patients who received raloxifene. Conclusions: Treatment with raloxifene can suppress reduction in bone density in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes who are undergoing hemodialysis. © 2012 Kowsar Corp.

Paraneoplastic nephropathy is a rare complication of malignant disease. We present a case of cervical cancer with biopsy-proven membranous nephropathy and associated nephrotic syndrome. Irradiation to the specific neoplasm site and to the metastatic paraaortic lymph node tissues lead to regression of the nephrotic syndrome without causing severe adverse events. Radiation therapy can be the first choice in the treatment of paraneoplastic nephrotic syndrome if the primary neoplasm is unresectable. Invasiveness of intervention and patient prognosis should be carefully deliberated in the management of the two diseases.<br>