title: Histological criteria for encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis - a standardized approach.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The two most relevant pathologies of long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD) are simple sclerosis and encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS). The histological differentiation of those two entities is difficult. The Aim of the study was to establish a method to standardize and facilitate the differentiation between simple sclerosis and EPS  METHODS: We investigated 58 peritoneal biopsies - 31 EPS patients and 27 PD patients. Two blinded investigators analyzed 20 histological characteristics in EPS and PD patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  THE FOLLOWING FINDINGS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE COMMON IN EPS THAN IN PATIENTS ON PD WITHOUT EPS: fibroblast like cells (FLC) (p<0.0001), mesothelial denudation (p<0.0001), decreased cellularity (p = 0.008), fibrin deposits (p<0.03), Fe deposits (p = 0.05), podoplanin vascular (p<0.0001), podoplanin avascular (p<0.0001). Using all predictor variables we trained the classification method Random Forest to categorize future cases. Podoplanin vascular and avascular were taken together (p<0.0001), FLC (p<0.0001), mesothelial denudation (p = 0.0005), calcification (p = 0.0026), acellular areas (p = 0.0094), and fibrin deposits (p = 0.0336) showed up as significantly important predictor variables. Estimated misclassification error rate when classifying new cases turned out to be 14%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The introduced statistical method allows discriminating between simple sclerosis and EPS. The misclassification error will likely improve with every new case added to the database.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Robert Bosch Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Niko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fritz
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ulmer
authors.forename: Joerg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Latus
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kimmel
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Biegger
authors.forename: German
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ott
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reimold
authors.forename: Klaus-Peter
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Thon
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dippon
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Segerer
authors.forename: M Dominik
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Alscher
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010530:Peritoneal Dialysis / Q000009:adverse effects; D056627:Peritoneal Fibrosis / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D012598:Sclerosis / Q000473:pathology; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods*