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The letter to the editor discusses the use of shear-wave elastography (SWE) as a diagnostic method for encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). The authors argue that while SWE has been successful in other areas of imaging, it may not be suitable for diagnosing EPS due to the limited evidence from a single patient in the study. They suggest that computed tomography (CT) remains the recommended method for diagnosing EPS, especially in long-term PD patients. The authors call for further research to compare the effectiveness of CT and SWE in detecting EPS, particularly in the early stages. [Extracted from the article]

Complete blood count (CBC)-derived inflammatory markers are predictive biomarkers for the prognosis of many diseases. However, there was no study on patients with peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis (PDAP). We aimed to investigate the value of these markers in predicting treatment failure of acute peritonitis in chronic PD patients. The records of 138 peritonitis episodes were reviewed and divided into treatment success or failure groups in a single center for 10 years. CBC-derived markers and other routine data were recorded before peritonitis treatment was initiated. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve about the predictors of treatment outcomes were performed. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and derived NLR were significantly higher in the failure group. Univariate logistic regression results showed that NLR and PLR were risk factors of treatment outcomes. The backward stepwise multivariate logistic regression results demonstrated that NLR [adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 1.376; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.105–1.713; p =.004], PLR (aOR, 1.010; 95%CI, 1.004–1.017; p =.002) were risk factors, but hemoglobin-to-lymphocyte ratio (HLR) (aOR, 0.977; 95%CI, 0.963–0.991; p =.001), and SII (aOR, 0.999; 95%CI, 0.998–1.000; p =.040) were protective factors. A combination of age, PD vintage, Gram-positive peritonitis, staphylococcus aureus, culture-negative, NLR, PLR, HLR, and SII would improve prognostic performance. The area under this ROC curve was 0.85, higher than other factors. NLR, PLR, HLR, and SII were associated with PDAP outcomes. Age, PD vintage, NLR, and PLR were significant risk factors in PDAP patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National holidays are associated with high mortality in some diseases, but little is known about patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). The research aimed to investigate the impact of national holidays on the health outcomes of PD patients. Over ten years, all episodes of unplanned hospitalization, death, and peritonitis in PD patients were collected in our center. Seven national holidays in China were chosen, and non-holiday days were selected as the control period. The effect of national holidays was observed by comparing the hospitalization, death, and peritonitis rates between holiday and non-holiday groups. There were 297 events in all holiday periods and 1247 in non-holiday periods. There is no significant difference in hospitalization rate between holiday and non-holiday groups (32.4% ± 6.4% vs. 29.2% ± 3.4%, p = 0.175). So is the death rate [6.3% (4.8–12.3%) vs.5.0% (4.2–8.9%), p = 0.324] and peritonitis rate [0.19 (0.13–0.53) vs. 0.22 (0.18–0.27), p = 0.445] between the two groups. Significant differences were observed in the distribution of peritonitis causes between the two groups (p = 0.017). The rate of secondary to other infections in the holiday group was significantly higher than in the non-holiday group (25.0 vs. 10.3%, p = 0.015). Our study suggested no national holiday effect on health outcomes of PD patients based on ten-year data in our center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the issue of stealth and electromagnetic protection of weapons and equipment in strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) environment, a transparent double-sided ultrawideband metasurface is proposed to realize wave absorption/absorption-scattering integrated function in two directions. The interactions between backscattered waves produced by the meta-atoms are manipulated and optimized simultaneously by hybrid far-field scattering pattern analysis and genetic algorithm to achieve ultra wideband destructive interference. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the polarization-independent −10 dB radar cross section (RCS) reduction performance can be achieved for more than 128% of the fractional bandwidth (4–18.25 GHz) at forward incidence, and the absorption more than 90% in the range of 2.75–12.75 GHz (fractional bandwidth more than 129%) at backward incidence. The scattering and absorbing characteristics of the metasurface are still well maintained in the range of 0°–50° oblique incidence. The method of this letter has an important prospect in related applications of strong EMP stealth and protection technology under the integration of information equipment in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Residual kidney function (RKF) impacts patients' survival rate and quality of life when undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). This meta-analysis was conducted to systematically identify risk and protective factors associated with RKF decline and loss., Methods: We searched three English and one Chinese databases from inception to January 31, 2023, for cohort and cross-sectional studies exploring factors associated with RKF decline or loss. The random effects model was employed to aggregate risk estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from multivariate analysis. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were performed to explore the heterogeneity among the studies., Results: Twenty-seven studies comprising 13549 individuals and 14 factors were included in the meta-analysis. Based on the meta-analysis results, risk factors involving male gender (hazard ratio (HR) 1.689, 95%CI 1.385-2.061), greater body mass index (BMI) (odds ratio (OR) 1.081, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.029-1.135), higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) (HR 1.014, 95%CI 1.005-1.024), diabetes mellitus (DM) (HR RKF loss 1.873, 95%CI 1.475-2.378), DM (OR RKF decline 1.906, 95%CI 1.262-2.879), peritonitis (relative ratio (RR) 2.291, 95%CI 1.633-3.213), proteinuria (OR 1.223, 95%CI 1.117-1.338), and elevated serum phosphorus (RR 2.655, 95%CI 1.679-4.201) significantly contributed to the risk of RKF decline and loss in PD patients. Conversely, older age (HR 0.968, 95%CI 0.956-0.981), higher serum albumin (OR 0.834, 95%CI 0.720-0.966), weekly Kt/V urea (HR 0.414, 95%CI 0.248-0.690), baseline urine volume (UV) (HR 0.791, 95%CI 0.639-0.979), baseline RKF (HR 0.795, 95%CI 0.739-0.857) exhibited protective effects. However, diuretics use, automatic peritoneal dialysis (APD) modality and baseline RKF did not significantly impact RKF decline., Conclusions: Patients with male gender, greater BMI, higher SBP, DM, peritonitis, proteinuria, and elevated serum phosphorus might have a higher risk of RKF decline and loss. In contrast, older age, higher serum albumin, weekly Kt/V urea, baseline UV, and baseline RKF might protect against RKF deterioration.