Music during haemodialysis may ease fatigue, low mood and pain, on low-certainty evidence

The edition in brief

Today's nephrology edition closes on a Cochrane review of 27 randomised trials (1584 people) of music-based interventions during haemodialysis. Music may reduce short-term depressive symptoms (standardised mean difference −0.88), pain (−0.89) and fatigue, on low-certainty evidence, while the effect on blood pressure is very uncertain and no trial reported outcomes beyond six months. An umbrella review of five meta-analyses linked cognitive impairment on haemodialysis to age, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, anaemia and inflammation, and cognitive frailty to depression, malnutrition, low-flux dialysis and intradialytic hypotension; most evidence was low certainty. Pooled samples from two crossover trials in 123 people with type 2 diabetes found SGLT2 inhibitors raised plasma TMAO by 11.5% and lowered its renal clearance, a biomarker finding of unknown clinical meaning. The FDA lists a class II recall of an India-manufactured cinacalcet lot for failed dissolution. The pearl covers calcium monitoring on cinacalcet.