Obesity is a health problem that is reaching epidemic proportions. Extreme obesity (body mass index [BMI] >40 kg/m2 ) is a type of obesity that usually does not respond to medical treatment, with surgery being the current treatment of choice. Extreme obesity is associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Recently, obesity has been related with high rate of renal lesions, but renal function and renal parameters in extreme obesity scarcely are documented. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of weight loss after bariatric surgery (BS) on BP, renal parameters, and renal function in 61 extremely obese (EO) patients after 24 mo of follow-up. A total of 61 EO adults (37 women) were studied prospectively before and 24 mo after surgery. Control subjects were 24 healthy, normal-weight adults (15 women). Anthropometric, BP, and renal parameters were determined. Presurgery weight, BMI, GFR, 24-h proteinuria, and 24-h albuminuria were higher in the EO patients than in control subjects (P < 0.001). All parameters improved at 12 mo after BS. However, during the second year of follow-up, only 24-h albuminuria (P ‫؍‬ 0.006) and BMI (P ‫؍‬ 0.014) continued to improve. At 24 mo after BS, obesity-related renal alterations considerably improved. This improvement was observed mainly in the first year after surgery, when the majority of weight loss occurred. However, 24-h albuminuria still improves during the second year of follow-up. It is possible that this decrease in 24-h albuminuria is not GFR related but rather is attributable to the persistence of the decrease in BMI and to the improvement of other weight-related metabolic factors.

These results suggest that lipid peroxidation and inflammation, but not hyperhomocysteinaemia, are the main risk factors for mortality in haemodialysis patients receiving vitamin supplements. As the study was carried out in a relatively limited number of patients, our findings need to be confirmed in a larger patient population.

Oxidative stress (oxLDL antibody titre) is one of the principal risk factors for cardiovascular mortality in this population of haemodialysis patients. Intravenous ferrotherapy, due to its pro-oxidant properties, probably favours oxidative stress. Serum concentration of CRP was not a good predictive factor of cardiovascular mortality during 4 years of follow-up, possibly because of the slight positive correlation that exists between CRP and age.

The high incidence of new-onset diabetes mellitus after transplantation (NODAT) suggests the need to find new factors to explain the pathogenesis. Our objectives were (1) to confirm that low levels of pretransplant adiponectin are an independent risk factor for the development of NODAT in a larger transplanted population; (2) to analyze whether adiponectin is a better predictor of NODAT than other inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a ) and pregnancyassociated plasma protein A (PAPP-A)) and (3) to assess the relationship between obesity, inflammatory markers and NODAT. One hundred ninety-nine nondiabetic patients (128 men; age: 53 ± 11 years; body mass index (BMI) 24.98 ± 3.76 kg/m 2 ) were included. Pre-transplant plasma glucose, insulin, adiponectin, CRP, TNF-a , IL-6 and PAPP-A were measured. Fortyfive patients developed NODAT. Patients with NODAT had a greater BMI (p = 0.005). Adiponectin was lower (p < 0.001) and CRP higher (p = 0.032) in patients with NODAT. Multivariate logistic regression and Cox analysis showed that the calcineurin inhibitor used, pre-transplant BMI and adiponectin were predictors of NODAT. ROC analysis showed that an adiponectin concentration of 11.4 lg/mL had a significant negative prediction for NODAT risk (sensitivity: 81% and specificity: 70%). Of the inflammatory markers studied, adiponectin proved to be an independent predictor of NODAT.

In the normal renal function and hyperfiltration groups, none of the prediction equations demonstrated acceptable accuracy owing to excessive underestimation of renal function. In CKD stages 2-3, with mean serum creatinine > or =133 micromol/l (1.5 mg/dl), the MDRD equation can be used to estimate GFR during the monitoring and follow-up of patients with type 2 diabetes receiving insulin, anti-diabetic drugs or both.