Serum Albumin Levels Associated with Mortality in Hemodialysis Patients

Serum albumin is commonly used as a proxy for nutritional status, as well as a marker of inflammation and a low serum albumin concentration is not only indicative of protein energy wasting in dialysis patients, but it is also a powerful predictor of the mortality risk in this population.

Several clinical conditions are associated with low serum albumin levels in dialysis patients, including infectious and inflammatory diseases, fluid overload, inadequate dialysis, severe co-morbidity, and taste change. Therefore, regular monitoring of serum albumin levels is useful for predicting outcomes in dialysis patients.

Read more: Enlarged Prostate: Molecular Mechanism Clue May Explain Link To Inflammation

The Hitachi 7600–210 modular clinical biochemistry analyzer (Photo courtesy of Hitachi).

Source: labmedica

Does Going to the Hospital Make You Sicker?

During a hospital stay, people usually hope to have a medical condition treated effectively so they can recover fully, go home and stay home. But it's not uncommon for a hospitalization to lead to a new health problem that's serious enough to require hospital readmission within 30 days.

The phenomenon, dubbed "post-hospital syndrome" by Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, is roughly defined as an acquired, transient period of increased risk for illness after a hospital stay, one that leads to re-hospitalization.

Read more: Does Going to the Hospital Make You Sicker?

You could find yourself back in the hospital – because of the hospital (Getty Images).

Source: msn/health&fitness

Not unexpectedly, a new drug-resistant ‘superbug’ pops up in the United States

For years, public health experts have warned us that deadly bacteria are developing resistance to all our available antibiotics. This week, researchers reported the first known U.S. case of an Escherichia coli infection resistant to colistin, a harsh drug seen as a last resort to knock out stubborn infections. The finding, described in the American Society for Microbiology journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, is no big surprise to researchers tracking the rise of resistant bacteria. The resistance gene, known as mcr-1, was discovered in E. coli in China last year, and has since cropped up in Europe.

As the United States crosses the same ominous milestone, research to understand resistance and develop new drugs is surging ahead. As Science reported earlier this month, evolutionary biologists have recently revisited old dogma about how best to prescribe antibiotics—revealing that trusted strategies such as using a high dose may not actually help prevent resistance.

Read more: Not unexpectedly, a new drug-resistant ‘superbug’ pops up in the United States

E. coli bacteria growing in a dish.

Source: sciencemag