Andrea M. Lopez

Chronic hemodialysis in a Nigerian teaching hospital: Practice and costs

The incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is on the rise in developing countries. To identify issues related to renal replacement therapy in ESRD patients in the developing world, we analyzed the practice and costs of hemodialysis in Nigerian ESRD patients. Ten ESRD patients were dialyzed at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, between June 15 and July 15, 2003. In these patients, we analyzed initiation, vascular access issues, frequency, duration, adequacy and economics of chronic hemodialysis. The Nigerian patients were referred to the nephrologist for the first time only when they had developed frank uremia. No patient had a permanent vascular access at the time dialysis was initiated. Only two patients had a functioning dialysis fistula, while the other eight patients were dialyzed through temporary femoral vein catheters that were removed after each dialysis. Frequency of dialysis was three times weekly in 2 patients, twice weekly in 1 patient and once weekly or less frequently in 7 patients. The duration of a dialysis session was prescribed to be 4 hours, but sessions often lasted for as long as 10 hours because of breakdowns of the antiquated dialysis machines. The urea reduction ratio was 45.3±8.6%. In every case, the cost of dialysis was borne by the patients and their families. Comparison of the cost of dialysis, with extensive re-use of supplies, to monthly incomes of Nigerians with different professions revealed that the great majority of Nigerians cannot afford three times weekly dialysis. Underdialysis in Nigerian ESRD patients is common and caused by socioeconomic factors and technologic deficits. One step towards correction of underdialysis could be sharing of the cost of dialysis by the public.

Retained in HIV Care But Not on Antiretroviral Treatment: A Qualitative Patient-Provider Dyadic Study.

Background Patients retained in HIV care but not on antiretroviral therapy (ART) represent an important part of the HIV care cascade in the United States. Even in an era of more tolerable and efficacious ART, decision making in regards to ART offer and uptake remains complex and calls for exploration of both patient and provider perspectives. We sought to understand reasons for lack of ART usage in patients meeting the Health Resources Services Administration definition of retention as well as what motivated HIV primary care appointment attendance in the absence of ART. Methods and Findings We conducted a qualitative study consisting of 70 in-depth interviews with ART-naïve and ART-experienced patients off ART and their primary care providers in two urban safety-net HIV clinics in San Francisco and New York. Twenty patients and their providers were interviewed separately at baseline, and 15 dyads were interviewed again after at least 3 mo and another clinic visit in order to understand any ART use in the interim. We applied dyadic analysis to our data. Nearly all patients were willing to consider ART, and 40% of the sample went on ART, citing education on newer antiretroviral drugs, acceptance of HIV diagnosis, social support, and increased confidence in their ability to adhere as facilitators. However, the strength of the provider recommendation of ART played an important role. Many patients had internalized messages from providers that their health was too good to warrant ART. In addition, providers, while demonstrating patient-centered care through sensitivity to patients experiencing psychosocial instability, frequently muted the offer of ART, at times unintentionally. In the absence of ART, lab monitoring, provider relationships, access to social services, opiate pain medications, and acute symptoms motivated care. The main limitations of this study were that treatment as prevention was not explored in depth and that participants were recruited from academic HIV clinics in the US, making the findings most generalizable to this setting. Conclusions Provider communication with regard to ART is a key focus for further exploration and intervention in order to increase ART uptake for those retained in HIV care.

Spatial Analysis of HIV Positive Injection Drug Users in San Francisco, 1987 to 2005

Spatial analyses of HIV/AIDS related outcomes are growing in popularity as a tool to understand geographic changes in the epidemic and inform the effectiveness of community-based prevention and treatment programs. The Urban Health Study was a serial, cross-sectional epidemiological study of injection drug users (IDUs) in San Francisco between 1987 and 2005 (N = 29,914). HIV testing was conducted for every participant. Participant residence was geocoded to the level of the United States Census tract for every observation in dataset. Local indicator of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) tests were used to identify univariate and bivariate Census tract clusters of HIV positive IDUs in two time periods. We further compared three tract level characteristics (% poverty, % African Americans, and % unemployment) across areas of clustered and non-clustered tracts. We identified significant spatial clustering of high numbers of HIV positive IDUs in the early period (1987–1995) and late period (1996–2005). We found significant bivariate clusters of Census tracts where HIV positive IDUs and tract level poverty were above average compared to the surrounding areas. Our data suggest that poverty, rather than race, was an important neighborhood characteristic associated with the spatial distribution of HIV in SF and its spatial diffusion over time.

Patient Perspectives on the Experience of Being Newly Diagnosed with HIV in the Emergency Department/Urgent Care Clinic of a Public Hospital

We sought to understand patient perceptions of the emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) HIV diagnosis experience as well as factors that may promote or discourage linkage to HIV care. We conducted in-depth interviews with patients (n=24) whose HIV infection was diagnosed in the ED/UC of a public hospital in San Francisco at least six months prior and who linked to HIV care at the hospital HIV clinic. Key diagnosis experience themes included physical discomfort and limited functionality, presence of comorbid diagnoses, a wide spectrum of HIV risk perception, and feelings of isolation and anxiety. Patients diagnosed with HIV in the ED/UC may not have their desired emotional supports with them, either because they are alone or they are with family members or friends to whom they do not want to immediately disclose. Other patients may have no one they can rely on for immediate support. Nearly all participants described compassionate disclosure of test results by ED/UC providers, although several noted logistical issues that complicated the disclosure experience. Key linkage to care themes included the importance of continuity between the testing site and HIV care, hospital admission as an opportunity for support and HIV education, and thoughtful matching by linkage staff to a primary care provider. ED/UC clinicians and testing programs should be sensitive to the unique roles of sickness, risk perception, and isolation in the ED/UC diagnosis experience, as these things may delay acceptance of HIV diagnosis. The disclosure and linkage to care experience is crucial in forming patient attitudes towards HIV and HIV care, thus staff involved in disclosure and linkage activities should be trained to deliver compassionate, informed, and thoughtful care that bridges HIV testing and treatment sites.

Moral ambivalence and the decision to initiate others into injection drug use: A qualitative study in two California cities

BACKGROUND Research has shown that people often need assistance from an established person who injects drugs (PWID) in order to initiate their own injection drug use. Yet, there is scant research on the injection initiation process from the perspective of established PWID who assists with initiation. In this paper, we examine the injection initiation process from the perspective of established PWID. METHODS From 2011 to 2013, we conducted qualitative life history interviews with 113 PWID in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. Qualitative data were coded using an inductive analysis approach. Emergent themes are presented in a series of emblematic case studies that elucidate the injection initiation process from the point of view of the PWID who help people with their first injection. RESULTS Most participants (70%) said that they had never initiated another person into drug injection, citing negative health and social consequences of drug injection as their primary reasons. Among those PWID who had ever facilitated initiation (30%), most expressed moral ambivalence about the behaviour. Using case studies, we show how PWID engage in a complicated calculation that weighs the pros and cons of assisting someone with their first injection. Concerns about long term harms associated with injection drug use sometimes give way to short-term altruistic concerns related to self-initiation or instrumental needs on the part of the established PWID. CONCLUSIONS Objections to facilitating initiation of injection naïve persons appear to be common among established PWID but are sometimes overridden by a need to reduce harms that can be associated with self-initiation and ones structural vulnerability. For established PWID, helping to initiate another person becomes a complex moral question with nuanced motivations. While further substantiation of this observation will require more research, it is worth considering how existing disinclination to initiating injection naïve persons can be integrated into new or existing approaches to preventing injection initiation.

Inadequacy of dialysis, chronic inflammation and malnutrition in Nigerian patients on chronic hemodialysis

Purpose To identify the extent of underdialysis, chronic inflammation and malnutrition and their interrelationships in Nigerian hemodialysis patients. Methods In a prospective study including 10 adult patients, (6 men, 4 women) on hemodialysis in North Central Nigeria, malnutrition was assessed by body mass index (BMI), serum albumin and prealbumin, and bioimpedance (BIA) pre-and post dialysis, inflammation was evaluated by C-reactive protein (CRP) and adequacy of dialysis was judged by frequency of the hemodialysis sessions and Kt/V urea. Results Post-dialysis BMI was 21.3 (19.9, 24.3) kg/m2 (< 20 kg/m2 in 4 patients), serum albumin 31.5 (24.0, 32.0) g/L (< 30.0 g/L in 5), serum pre-albumin 25.2 (15.3, 31.1) mg/dL (< 18.0 mg/dL in 4), serum CRP 4.8 (1.2, 11.5) mg/dL (> 1.0 mg/dL in 8), phase angle 4.2 (3.7, 5.1)° (< 3° in 3) and body fat deficit was diagnosed by BIA in 4 patients. Weekly frequency of dialysis was 3 times in 2 patients, twice in 1 and ≤1 time in 7. Single-pool Kt/V urea was 0.81 (0.68, 0.95, <1.2 in 9 patients and > 1.2 in one patient receiving dialysis only twice weekly). By combined frequency of dialysis and Kt/V urea values, no patient received an adequate dose of dialysis and, indeed, all patients had overt symptoms of uremia. Low body weight, low serological and BIA nutrition indices, and high CRP levels occurred in the same patients. Patients on dialysis for > 1 year had worse nutrition indices than those on dialysis for < 1 year. Conclusions Underdialysis was universal, while poor nutrition and chronic malnutrition were found in the majority of the small number of patients studied. These three adverse conditions, which were interlinked, may be common in Nigerian hemodialysis patients, because their underlying socioeconomic causes are widespread. (Int J Artif Organs 2006; 29: 1067–73)

The phenomenon of low-frequency heroin injection among street-based urban poor: Drug user strategies and contexts of use

BACKGROUND Dominant public health and medical discourse has relied on a pharmacocentric conception of heroin use-that is, the notion that heroin users inject compulsively to stave off physical and psychological withdrawal. Previous research disputes this claim suggesting that other patterns of heroin use, such as occasional, recreational, or controlled use are possible. In our previous cross-sectional epidemiological research, we identified the phenomenon of low frequency heroin injection (low-FHI), among street-based drug users. The goal of the current study was to qualitatively assess and contextualise this phenomenon over time among a sample of street-based low-FHI. METHODS 29 low-FHI and 25 high frequency heroin injectors (high-FHI) were followed for 2 years, during which they participated in a series of in-depth interviews. Qualitative data were coded using an inductive analysis approach. As similarities and differences between participants were discovered, transcripts were queried for supportive quotations as well as negative cases. RESULTS We found the social context among low-FHI and high-FHI to be similar with the exception of their patterns of heroin use. Thus, we focused this analysis on understanding motivations for and management of low-FHI. Two major categories of low-FHI emerged from the data: maintenance and transitioning low-FHI. Maintenance low-FHI sustained low-FHI over time. Some of these heroin users were circumstantial low-FHI, who maintained low-FHI as a result of their social networks or life events, and others maintained low-FHI purposefully. Transitioning low-FHI did not sustain low use throughout the study. We found that heroin use patterns frequently shift over time and these categories help identify factors impacting drug use within particular moments in an individuals life. CONCLUSIONS Given the various patterns of heroin use that were identified in this study, when working with IDUs, one must assess the specifics of heroin use patterns including drug preferences, desire for substance abuse treatment, as well as basic physical and mental health care needs.

Hydration abnormalities in Nigerian patients on chronic hemodialysis

The state of hydration affects the outcomes of chronic dialysis. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) provides estimates of body water (V), extracellular volume (ECFV), and fat‐free mass (FFM) that allow characterization of hydration. We compared single‐frequency BIA measurements before and after 14 hemodialysis sessions in 10 Nigerian patients (6 men, 4 women; 44±7 years old) with clinical evaluation (weight removed during dialysis, presence of edema) and with estimates of body water obtained by the Watson, Chertow, and Chumlea anthropometric formulas. Predialysis and postdialysis values of body water did not differ between BIA and anthropometric estimates. However, only the BIA estimate of the change in body water during dialysis (−0.8±2.9 L) did not differ from the corresponding change in body weight (−1.3±3.0 kg), while anthropometric estimates of the change in body water were significantly lower, approximately one‐third of the change in weight. Bioelectrical impedance analysis correctly detected the intradialytic change in body water content (the ratio V/Weight) in 79% of the cases, while anthropometric formula estimates of the same change were erroneous in each case. Compared with patients with clinical postdialysis euvolemia (n=7), those with postdialysis edema (n=5) had higher values of postdialysis BIA ratios V/FFM (0.77±0.01 vs. 0.72±0.03, p<0.01) and ECFV/V (0.53±0.02 vs. 0.47±0.06, p<0.05), respectively. Bioelectrical impedance analysis appeared to underestimate body water and extracellular volume in a patient with massive ascites and bilateral pleural effusions. Anthropometric formulas are not appropriate for evaluating the state of hydration in patients on chronic hemodialysis. In contrast, BIA provides estimates of hydration agreeing with clinical estimates in the same patients, although it tends to underestimate body water and extracellular volume in patients with large collections of fluid in central body cavities.