Editorial issue 236

In the 236th issue of NDT-E you will find five CME lectures about various aspects of renal transplantation presented at the ERA-EDTA meeting in Prague June 2011. First of all Dr. Ondrej Viklicky, Prague, Czech Republic presents a lecture entitled “MOLECULAR PREDICTORS OF OUTCOME”. The 2nd talk is entitled “PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF BKV NEPHROPATHY” and is presented by Dr. Petra Reinke, Berlin, Germany. The 3rd talk is entitled”POST TRANSPLANTATION CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE” and is presented by Dr. Francis Verbeke, Ghent, Belgium. The 4th talk given by Dr. Jean-Paul Soulillou, Nantes, France and is entitled ”IMMUNE CORRELATE OF OPERATIONAL TOLERANCE OF MISMATCHED TRANSPLANT IN HUMAN”. Finally, Dr Hans-Dieter Volk, Berlin, Germany will discuss ”DRUG MINIMISATION FROM BENCH TO BEDSIDE – SOME LESSONS FROM THE RISET PROGRAM”

You will also find links to several interesting recent papers. In a commentary in Kidney Int Susan Ott discusses the fact that the safety and efficacy of bisphosphonates may be different in patients with chronic kidney disease. Moreover, Andrew Shih et al. report that in an older population-based cohort, oral bisphosphonate use was not associated with acute kidney injury. You will also find a link to a useful commentary made by Jai Radhakrishnan and Daniel Cattran on the KDIGO practice guideline on glomerulonephritis. In an interesting paper published in J Clin Invest Henk Schipper et al. propose that, especially under low-fat diet conditions, adipose tissue–resident invariant natural killer T cells maintain healthy adipose tissue through direct interplay with adipocytes and prevent insulin resistance. In a paper published in the October issue of NDT Marlies Noordzij and Kitty Jager discuss the fact that it is not easy to perform fair comparison of outcomes between haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Finally, Mario Cozzolino et al. publish an observational study (FARO), which suggests that VDRA therapy was associated with improved survival in dialysis patients, even with low serum iPTH levels.

In this issue of NDT-E you will also find links two new and useful sites kindly provided by Prof. Michael J. Mihatsch, Basel, Switzerland. TheNephroTox database will increase awareness and knowledge within the interested medical community, especially pathologists and nephrologists, concerning drug related side effects. It will improve the information available about drugs and about the morphological features seen after treatment with certain drugs. The figures may be used for teaching and training purposes without permission but they cannot be used commercially without written permission from the author. During clinical rounds, you can easily access NephroTox with your smart phone or tablet computer. The Nephropathology Working Group of the European Society of Pathology homepage is intended as a contribution to the establishment of a “community of European nephro-pathologists and nephrologists interested in pathology” and to the building of a worldwide network. It provides all relevant information for scientific and diagnostic work, informs about upcoming meetings in Nephropathology and training courses, and presents lectures of past meetings and recent publications in the field.

The nutritional survey is now closed. In this issue of NDT-E you will find the correct answers and also read the comments from the authors on these rather difficult questions. If you have questions or comments on this nutritional survey, or nutritional comments in general, please use the opportunity to comment the new nutritional blog moderated by Juan Jesus Carrero that soon will be launched at NDT-E.
As part of the new themed issues series, NDT is planning a Supplement on Obesity, overweight and CKD to be published May 2013. This issue will be co-edited by Kumar Sharma and Carmine Zoccali. For the purpose of this exciting theme issue NDT-E will publish in autumn a two-part survey (knowledge part plus practice pattern part) made by Peter Stenvinkel, Alp Ikizler, Francesca Mallamaci and Carmine Zoccali. Please do this survey on a still overlooked problem in Nephrology. The results of the survey may be of much interest for the renal community.

Enjoy your NDT-E!

Peter Stenvinkel, Editor-in-chief