Study the past if you would define the future. Confucius

Generically, in medical research it is our aim to iden-tify early markers of chronic diseases in order to di-agnose patients before it becomes too late to intervene with appropriate treatment or clinical management strategies. Why then have we not, to date, been able to identify peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients that are prone to developing encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS)? In its most fulminant form this condition has a severe presentation. The typical macroscopic finding is the co-coon-like encapsulation of the entire intestine, result-ing in complete or partial obstruction of the bowel. This is frequently accompanied by fibrin deposition, focal bleeding in the peritoneum, and various quantities of bloody ascites (1). Patients present with severe GI symp-toms that may have been present for some time. A his-tory of weight loss is frequently reported. We ar