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Biomedical subjects

G E Schreiner

Publications and source records attributed to G E Schreiner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

How end-stage renal disease (ESRD)-medicare developed.

Uremia is a chemical, toxic, potentially fatal condition. In a variable pattern, uremia ultimately kills almost every cell in the body. Uremia is produced by hundreds of diseases, both kidney and systemic (e.g., diabetes). These kinds of uremic conditions range from the acute and catastrophic to the slowly and moderately progressive. Humans and medicine have struggled at least since Hippocrates to understand, prevent and treat uremia and thereby prolong the useful lives of the young and the aging. Accelerated by the spectacle of premature uremic deaths from crush syndrome, shock, and forms of nephritis during major wars and disasters, medicine fused clinical and basic science with industrial technology and came up with two effective treatments. Dialysis in several modes and kidney transplantation became feasible but proved complex and expensive. How people, struggling to survive, were able to use a representative form of government to treat all kidney patients, forms a human story: A "people" story. Since it culminated within a single medical generation, it is possible to tell the story as a participant and eye-witness. This is how the medical, social and national organization of substitution therapy for uremia evolved. Since it is legislatively called end-stage renal disease, we titled the entitlement, "How ESRD-Medicare Developed."

Delivery of Health Care↗

Evolution of nephrology. The caldron of its organizations.

Nephrology in America was the first and largest of the new internal medical specialties to emerge after World War II. It was a novel fusion of traditional basic sciences and new clinical tools such as renal biopsy, new imaging, molecular target drugs, dialysis, hemoperfusion and transplantation. The immediate roots were provided by great scientists/clinicians like John Peters, Homer Smith and Tom Addis. The caldron was formed by the tensions arising from newly formed organizations such as the AHA (including NYHA and WHA), NIH, ISN, ASN, ASAIO and NKF. Without these tensions, nephrology might have become a much smaller and narrower specialty of clinical physiology, salt and water and acid-base metabolism. The evolution was rapid from attendance 100+ at the first ISN in Evian, France in 1960 to the 1998 ASN meeting in Philadelphia which drew more than 10, 000 nephrologists. This is a personalized history of those tensions and their interactions written by the only nephrologist who has been President of the WHA, ASN, ISN, ASAIO and the NKF.

Artificial Organs↗

How end-stage renal disease (ESRD)-Medicare developed.

Uremia is a chemical, toxic, potentially fatal condition. In a variable pattern, uremia ultimately kills almost every cell in the body. Uremia is produced by hundreds of diseases, both kidney and systemic (e.g., diabetes). These kinds of uremic conditions range from the acute and catastrophic to the slowly and moderately progressive. Humans and medicine have struggled at least since Hippocrates to understand, prevent and treat uremia and thereby prolong the useful lives of the young and the aging. Accelerated by the spectacle of premature uremic deaths from crush syndrome, shock, and forms of nephritis during major wars and disasters, medicine fused clinical and basic science with industrial technology and came up with two effective treatments. Dialysis in several modes and kidney transplantation became feasible but proved complex and expensive. How people, struggling to survive, were able to use a representative form of government to treat all kidney patients, forms a human story: A "people" story. Since it culminated within a single medical generation, it is possible to tell the story as a participant and eye-witness. This is how the medical, social and national organization of substitution therapy for uremia evolved. Since it is legislatively called end-stage renal disease, we titled the entitlement, "How ESRD-Medicare Developed."

History, 20th Century↗

Hanta is coming.

The Hanta virus is coming again. Yes, it is coming again and again to your town to your rodents and to your homes! We can resolve to prevent it, contain it, and treat it in a scientific and humane way, or we can salivate, scratch, bite, and run like rats and mice and voles and shrews.

Animals↗

Low-dose subcutaneous erythropoietin in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis.

We evaluated changes in hematocrit in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) before and after the administration of erythropoietin (EPO). Thirty-five patients were evaluated at the beginning of treatment with CAPD and after an average of 3.5 years on CAPD; mean hematocrit (Hct) rose from 25.4 +/- 5.4% to 28.1 +/- 6.7% (P less than 0.001). In the period before EPO administration 11 patients required a total of 44 transfusions (one patient needed 23 transfusions). Fifteen patients were started on subcutaneous erythropoietin 3,000 units 3 times a week and were followed for a mean period of 6.3 months. Hct rose from 23.8 +/- 1.8% to 25.2 +/- 2.4% (P less than 0.01) within the first 2 weeks and up to 27.5 +/- 3.7% (P less than 0.01) in the fourth week. By the eighth week the target Hct (30 to 35%) was reached. During the next 5 months the EPO doses were adjusted to each patient's needs ranging between 2,000 U per week to 4,000 U 3 times per week. Mild hypertension was the only side effect seen in some of the patients. In conclusion low dose subcutaneous EPO is effective in managing the anemia of patients on CAPD with only minor side effects.

Adult↗

Prevention of renal disease and conservation of renal function.

In summary, we have reviewed some of the most frequently encountered areas of prevention of renal failure in the elderly. They include obstruction, hypertension, drug interaction, and inappropriate use of drugs and the silent killer of the elderly, renal carcinoma. Only by a thorough understanding of the altered physiology of the aging kidney can the physician avoid making the same mistakes when new drugs are developed or new types of diseases are encountered. Proper early diagnosis and understanding the guidelines to therapy in these conditions, can save huge human costs in terms of mortality, morbidity, and money.

Aged↗

Sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis in rats induced by long-term intraperitoneal administration of antiseptics.

Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) is an effective long-term treatment for renal failure. Sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis (SEP) is a rare but devastating complication of CAPD and may be caused by long-term peritoneal antiseptic exposure. We examined the peritoneal injury resulting from daily inoculations of moderately high concentrations of the following antiseptics: povidone-iodine, Dakin's solution, Amuchina, and Ampercide. After 4, 8, and 12 weeks of daily intraperitoneal injections in rats, a 10% solution of povidone-iodine in dialysis fluid caused a condition that mirrors human SEP. Animals had poor early weight gain, and gross necropsy examination revealed intestinal adhesions and a mesothelium that was sclerotically thickened. From 4 to 8 weeks the 10% povidone-iodine-injected animals showed progressive conditions and the prevalence of multiple encapsulating adhesions increased from 0/6 to 4/4, p = 0.005. Marked visceral mesothelial thickening in the 10% povidone-iodine-injected animals was quantitated after 4, 8, and 12 weeks at 92.0 +/- 11.6, 151.5 +/- 28.8, and 206.0 +/- 36.2 micron, respectively. Rats injected with dialysis fluid (controls) had normal-appearing mesothelial surfaces measured at 1.8 +/- 0.2, 2.4 +/- 0.2, and 2.2 +/- 0.2 micron after 4, 8, and 12 weeks, respectively. The marked thickening of the mesothelium in the 10% povidone-iodine group compared with the controls was highly significant, p less than 10(-8). We conclude that povidone-iodine, the most commonly used antiseptic in CAPD, caused severe tissue injury, whereas other antiseptic solutions, Dakin's, Amuchina, and Ampercide, at the similar dilution did not appear to cause mesothelial injury.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗

Captopril-associated cholestatic jaundice.

Captopril, the competitive inhibitor of angiotensin-converting enzyme, is of considerable benefit in difficult-to-manage forms of hypertension. Its use has been associated with various untoward effects, but hepatic injury has not been widely reported. We treated a patient with captopril-associated cholestatic jaundice; a review of cases reported to the drug manufacturer and a review of the literature showed 13 additional cases of hepatic injury associated with captopril. In 9 of these the jaundice was categorized as cholestatic, and in 4 of the remaining 5 as mixed cholestatic-hepatocellular. These findings show that jaundice may be an idiosyncratic side effect of captopril, and that captopril-associated jaundice characteristically has strongly cholestatic features.

Adult↗