Afschin Soleiman

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Joint specimens Eighty interphalangeal joints—40 distal interphalangeal (DIP) and 40 proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints—from 40 consecutive individual post mortem joint specimens (18 female and 22 male) were obtained at the Department of Pathology, Medical University of Vienna. Patients’ ages ranged from 33 to 96 years (median 66 years). Patients with a documented history of inflammatory joint disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis, were excluded.

1 INTRODUCTION End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a major global health burden. It is projected that 5.4 million people will receive renal replacement therapy (RRT) by 2030 and up to approximately seven million adult people will have died due to lack of access to RRT.1 The preferable type of RRT for most ESRD patients is kidney transplantation.