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Objective. To investigate the correlation between presbycusis and kidney deficiency as defined by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its material basis from the perspective of metabolism. Methods. Pure-tone audiometry was used to test auditory function. A kidney deficiency symptoms coring table was used to measure the kidney deficiency accumulated scores of the research subjects. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to measure the metabolites in the urine samples from 11 presbycusis patients and 9 elderly people with normal hearing. Results. Hearing loss in the elderly was positively correlated with kidney deficiency score in TCM. There were significant differences in urine metabolite profile between the presbycusis patients and the controls. A total of 23 differentially expressed metabolites were found. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that these metabolites were related to glutathione metabolism, amino acid metabolism, glucose metabolism, the N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor pathway, and the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor pathway. Conclusion. Glutathione metabolism, amino acid metabolism, glucose metabolism, NMDA receptors, and GABA receptors may be related to the pathogenesis of presbycusis and may be the material basis underlying the correlation between presbycusis and kidney deficiency in TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study assessed the overall symptom burden, including the prevalence, frequency, severity, and distress of symptoms among hemodialysis patients, and explored the relationship between demographic characteristics, clinical variables, self-management, sense of coherence, social support, and symptom burden in these patients. Herein, a regression analysis was performed to determine associations with symptom burden. The mean score of symptom burden among the participants (n = 382) was 74.12, with an average number of 12 symptoms. The analysis revealed that self-management, sense of coherence, and social support were negatively associated with the overall symptom burden. The multiple regression model showed that 48.6% of the variance in symptom burden was explained by meaningfulness, emotional management, daily urine output, subjective support, gender, and manageability. These findings contribute to the knowledge of symptom burden among hemodialysis patients and some new predictors (self-management, sense of coherence, and social support) of their symptom burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]