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Introduction: Autodialysis is the dialysis performed by the patient himself at a local center instead of a hemodialysis center. In Morocco, the practice of hemodialysis dates back to 1970; however, an autodialysis center does not yet exist. The objective was to assess the potential medical fitness and adherence of the patients to an autodialysis program., Methods: Descriptive and analytical multicenter study conducted in March 2015 involving patients from of eight hemodialysis centers in Casablanca (Morocco). The study was conducted in two steps: 1) a transversal assessment of the medical potential to achieve autodialysis that included 556 patients; 2) a survey of the autodialysis membership that included 383 out of 556 patients who were deemed eligible for autodialysis., Results: The average age was 54.63 ± 15.16 years; the average of hemodialysis duration was 85.9 ± 78.1 months. Diabetic nephropathy (22.7%) was the predominant cause of kidney disease. The assessment of medical potential to achieve autodialysis highlighted that almost all of the patients were in good condition (93%), independent (81%), and those without major comorbidities were less than 76 years old. Regarding the potential patients' adherence to autodialysis, among the 383 patients previously deemed suited for autodialysis, 293 (76.5%) responded favorably to the proposal of self-dialysis., Conclusion: The practice of hemodialysis should be implemented in a short time in Morocco because our patients' profile is perfectly suitable to this therapeutic method especially when they are young, in good general condition, autonomous, without major comorbidities, and willing to learn., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© Béfa Noto-Kadou-Kaza et al.)

Introduction: The aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence of depression and to investigate its associated risk factors in patients with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis., Methods: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study in the hemodialysis unit of the Division of Nephrology at the University Hospital of Sylvanus Olympio Lomé (Togo) from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. Self-evaluation Scale as calibrated using the Beck Depression Inventory in his simplified version was our screening tool., Results: During the study period, 88 patients were enrolled of whom 61.4% were men with a sex ratio of 1.6. The average age was 38.80 ± 13.24 years ranging from 12 to 66 years. The majority of patients (90.9%) were workers. Arterial hypertension was the most common somatic comorbidity (45.4%) recorded. Forty-six patients (52.3%) had hemodialysis duration between 1-4 years; 68.2% of patients had depression; 47.7% of depressed patients had severe depression. The occurrence of the depression is significantly related to the hemodialysis length (p= 0,008)., Conclusion: The management of chronic hemodialysis patient should be multidisciplinary including nephrologist and psychiatrist., Competing Interests: Conflits d’intérêts Les auteurs ne déclarent aucun conflit d'intérêts.

Introduction: Valvular calcifications are one of the major cardiovascular complications of hemodialysis because of its prevalence and its predictive indices of morbidity and mortality. There are many risk factors associated with these calcifications. Our study aims to evaluate both the prevalence of valvular calcifications in our patients on hemodialysis and their risk factors., Methods: This was a single-center cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study of 111 adult patients who were on hemodialysis for more than 6 months at the hemodialysis center CHU Ibn Rushd, Casablanca and who underwent ETT during the year 2013., Results: The average age of our patients was 44 ± 14 years. The average duration of hemodialysis was 146 ± 80 months. Average systolic blood pressure was 123 ± 23 mmHg and average diastolic blood pressure 72 ± 13 mmHg diastolic, average iPTH was 529 ± 460 pg/ml, mean serum calcium was 86 ± 10 mg/l and mean serum phosphate was 40 ± 15 mg/l. Mean CRP level was 11±19,8 mg/L. From the therapeutic point of view, 96% of patients were treated with calcium carbonate, 11% with 25 OH vitamin D, 55,5% with 1 hydroxy-vitamin D3. The prevalence of valvular calcification was 15% with aortic valve location in 41.2% and mitral valve location in 41.2%. In univariate analysis, only hemodialysis duration seems to be associated with the occurrence of calcifications and approaches marginal level of significance (p = 0.09)., Conclusion: The prevalence of valvular calcification in our hemodialysis patients remains high even if it seems relatively low compared to the literature data. No known risk factor was significantly associated with these calcifications.