Hajeong Lee

BACKGROUND: Researchers have suggested models to predict the risk of postoperative AKI (PO-AKI), but an externally validated risk index that can be practically implemented before patients undergo noncardiac surgery is needed. METHODS: We performed a retrospective observational study of patients without preexisting renal failure who underwent a noncardiac operation (≥1 hour) at two tertiary hospitals in Korea. We fitted a proportional odds model for an ordinal outcome consisting of three categori

BACKGROUND: With evaluation for physical performance, measuring muscle mass is an important step in detecting sarcopenia. However, there are no methods to estimate muscle mass from blood sampling. METHODS: To develop a new equation to estimate total-body muscle mass with serum creatinine and cystatin C level, we designed a cross-sectional study with separate derivation and validation cohorts. Total body muscle mass and fat mass were measured using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in 214 ad

BACKGROUND: The efficacy and safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) have not been investigated in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) with diabetes. We evaluated the impact of SGLT2i in a multicenter cohort of diabetic KTRs. METHODS: A total of 2083 KTRs with diabetes were enrolled from 6 transplant centers in Korea. Among them, 226 (10.8%) patients were prescribed SGLT2i for >90 d. The primary outcome was a composite outcome of all-cause mortality, death-censored graft fai

Research on the prognosis of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) has focused on renal survival, with little information being available on patient survival. Hence, this investigation aimed to explore long-term patient outcome in IgAN patients. Clinical and pathological characteristics at the time of renal biopsy were reviewed in 1,364 IgAN patients from 1979 to 2008. The outcomes were patient death and end stage renal disease (ESRD) progression. Overall, 71 deaths (5.3%) and 277 cases of ESRD (20.6%) occurre

We evaluated the impact of serum uric acid (SUA) on mortality in patients with chronic dialysis. A total of 4132 adult patients on dialysis were enrolled prospectively between August 2008 and September 2014. Among them, we included 1738 patients who maintained dialysis for at least 3 months and had available SUA in the database. We categorized the time averaged-SUA (TA-SUA) into 5 groups: <5.5, 5.5-6.4, 6.5-7.4, 7.5-8.4, and ≥8.5 mg/dL. Cox regression analysis was used to calculate the hazard ra

BACKGROUND: Previous epidemiological studies have focused on the prevalence of primary glomerulonephritis (GN), but few have explored long-term patient outcomes. This study was conducted to investigate the long-term patient and renal outcomes of primary GN. METHODS: A total of 1,943 biopsy-proven primary GN patients were included. The outcomes were mortality and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) progression. The relative mortality rate was expressed by the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) and the

Chronic kidney disease (CKD)-associated uremia aggravates—and is aggravated by—gut dysbiosis. However, the correlation between CKD severity and gut microbiota and/or their uremic metabolites is unclear. We enrolled 103 CKD patients with stage 1 to 5 and 46 healthy controls. We analyzed patients’ gut microbiota by MiSeq system and measured the serum concentrations of four uremic metabolites (p-cresyl sulfate, indoxyl sulfate, p-cresyl glucuronide, and trimethylamine N-oxide) by liquid chromatogra

TNF superfamily member 13 (TNFSF13) has been identified as a susceptibility gene for IgA nephropathy in recent genetic studies. However, the role of TNFSF13 in the progression of IgA nephropathy remains unresolved. We evaluated two genetic polymorphisms (rs11552708 and rs3803800) and plasma levels of TNFSF13 in 637 patients with IgA nephropathy, and determined the risk of ESRD according to theses variable. Neither of the examined genetic polymorphisms associated with a clinical outcome of IgA ne

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: High BP variability may cause AKI because of inappropriate kidney perfusion. This study aimed to investigate the association between intraoperative BP variability and postoperative AKI in patients who underwent noncardiac surgery. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We performed a cohort study of adults undergoing noncardiac surgery in hospitals in South Korea. We studied three cohorts using the following recording windows for intraoperative BP: discovery co

Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is defined by specific clinical characteristics, including microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and pathologic evidence of endothelial cell damage, as well as the resulting ischemic end-organ injuries. A variety of clinical scenarios have features of TMA, including infection, pregnancy, malignancy, autoimmune disease, and medications. These overlapping manifestations hamper differential diagnosis of the underlying pathogenesis, despite recent adva

BACKGROUND: The long-term prognosis of clinically early IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients remains to be clarified. We investigated the long-term outcomes of IgAN patients with an apparently benign presentation and evaluated prognostic factors for renal survival. METHODS: We included patients with biopsy-proven IgAN who had estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR) ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m2, normal blood pressure, and proteinuria <0.5 g/day at the time of biopsy. The primary outcome was progression to

Lower serum potassium levels (<4.5 mmol/L) occur more commonly in PD than in HD patients. It represents an independent predictor of survival in overall dialysis, especially in PD patients. Therefore, management of dialysis patients should focus especially on reducing the risk of hypokalemia, not only that of hyperkalemia.

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a critical issue in cancer patients because it is not only a morbid complication but also able to interrupt timely diagnostic evaluation or planned optimal treatment. However, the impact of AKI on overall mortality in cancer patients remains unclear. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 67 986 cancer patients, from 2004 to 2013 to evaluate the relationship between AKI and all-cause mortality. We used KDIGO AKI definition and grading syste

Lower potassium intake is considered to be correlated with diabetes incidence. However, few studies have investigated the effect of potassium intake on metabolic syndrome (MetS). Data was taken from the Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (2008-2010) using weighted adjustment. MetS was defined as per the revised National Cholesterol Education Program criteria. Homeostasis model assessment indices were calculated to diagnosis insulin resistance (IR). A total of 16,637 partic