• Chronic fluid overload was linked with an increased risk of early death in patients undergoing hemodialysis. • The magnitude of this risk was comparable to that of coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure.
The 5-year grant from the NHLBI to the labs of Jennifer and David Pollock also includes a third project at the University of Utah, bringing together 3 highly successful research entities
A novel treatment offers kidney failure and kidney transplant patients with a rare disorder new hope. The treatment allows targeted elimination of plasma cell clones producing abnormal proteins that deposits in the kidneys and leads to kidney failure, according to new research.
Kidney cancer patients may soon have more treatment choices that provide a higher quality of life, thanks to research completed by physician scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
April 2017 Headline
• Potentially preventable hospital acquired complications were associated with increased risks of dying while hospitalized or within 90 days of discharge, as well as with a greater likelihood of staying longer in the hospital and needing to be readmitted. • The magnitude of these associations was larger in patients with chronic kidney disease than in those with normal kidney function.
• Researchers have developed a risk calculator that estimates the risk of kidney failure after donation. • Overall risk was quite low, but black race and male sex were associated with increased risks of developing kidney failure in living kidney donors. • Older age was associated with greater kidney failure risk in nonblack donors, but not in in black donors. • Higher body mass index and a close biological relationship to the transplant recipient were also associated with increased risks of kidney failure.
Celeste Lee, cherished wife, sister, daughter, mother, faithful friend, and passionate patient advocate, died at age 51 from the autoimmune disease vasculitis, surrounded by family and friends, both near and far. Celeste was a longtime member of the Vasculitis Foundation and a founding member of the North Carolina VF Support Group.
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that surgery could more than double life expectancy for many patients with late-stage kidney cancer, giving them anywhere from two to almost 10 years more than they’d have without the surgery. A paper, published recently in The Journal of Urology, found a “clinically meaningful difference in survival” between renal cell carcinoma patients who had surgery to completely remove secondary tumor growths, called metastases, compared to those who didn’t.
• Most nephrology fellows rated overall quality of teaching in fellowships as either “good” or “excellent,” and over half of second-year fellows felt “fully prepared” for independent practice. • Fellows indicated a desire for more education in several core nephrology topics, including peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis, ultrasound, and kidney pathology.
The latest in a series of studies led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine shows that addition of a widely available, noninvasive imaging test called 99mTc-sestamibi SPECT/CT to CT or MRI increases the accuracy of kidney tumor classification. The research team reports that the potential improvement in diagnostic accuracy will spare thousands of patients each year in the United States alone from having to undergo unnecessary surgery.
Doctors rely mostly on two biomarkers -- urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate -- to identify those at higher risk of kidney failure. But researchers say those criteria miss a large proportion of patients who are at high risk of the disease and fail to predict accurately time of onset of ESRD. Researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center have developed a prognostic tool that accurately predicts the risk of end stage renal disease (ESRD) in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Physicians Perform World’s First Robotic Surgery to Remove Kidney Cancer Extending into the Heart, Saving Patient from Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death The 10-hour procedure redefines surgical limits, combining cutting-edge robotic expertise with top-notch, multi-disciplinary collaboration.
Breaking research published today in AACC’s Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine reveals that a number of diagnostic tests are less accurate when performed in pediatric patients with impaired kidney function. These findings show that healthcare providers should assess patient kidney function when interpreting clinical test results for certain conditions to ensure that patients receive the correct diagnoses and treatments.
• In 2013, reduced kidney function was associated with 4% of deaths worldwide, or 2.2 million deaths. • More than half of these deaths were cardiovascular deaths.
In patients with chronic kidney disease, low urine ammonium excretion identified individuals at high risk of kidney disease progression or death.
A new Scientific Statement issued by the Endocrine Society advises healthcare providers on ways to spot hormonal causes of high blood pressure that can be cured with surgery or treated effectively with medication.
A new study from the Keck School of Medicine of USC links increased dietary potassium with lower blood pressure.
• Among deceased donor kidney transplant recipients, those who were >30 kg (66 pounds) heavier than the donor had a 28% higher risk of transplant failure compared with equally weighted donors and recipients. • If the kidney was from a smaller donor of the opposite sex, the relative risk of transplant failure was further elevated to 35% for a male receiving a kidney from a female donor and 50% for a female receiving a kidney from a male donor.
Immunologic changes observed in an early study of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (MRCC) raised the possibility for a larger clinical study of combination immunotherapy, according to findings reported by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Advocates from the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) are meeting with Representatives, Senators, and their respective staffs today to urge Congress to continue its historic support of research funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and to cosponsor and pass the Living Donor Protection Act (H.R. 1270), no-cost legislation to eliminate barriers to living donation and increase access to transplants.
• Colonoscopies are being performed more often on healthier dialysis patients than on those with more limited life expectancies; however, overall, dialysis patients are being screened at a much higher rate relative to their life expectancy than their counterparts without kidney failure.
A symposium on continuous renal replacement therapies in AACN Advanced Critical Care includes an article on the multitude of factors that clinicians should incorporate into drug dosing and medication management during CRRT.
Condemns the Administration’s Proposed Funding Cuts for the National Institute of Health
• In dialysis patients who took 2.5 mg of apixaban twice daily, blood concentrations of the drug were maintained at therapeutic levels.
Using international genomic studies backed by proof-of-concept cell experiments, researchers have identified two genes that contribute to the chronic kidney disease glomerulonephritis.
Last year, when Jamie Hansard, executive director of undergraduate admissions at Texas Tech University, learned she would need a transplant, she said she felt overwhelmed and scared. But thanks to fellow Red Raider Sara Gragg, Hansard not only received a new kidney in a matter of months – she’s already well on her way back to a normal life.
• Sickle cell trait, a common hemoglobin variant in African Americans, was associated with a twofold higher risk of developing kidney failure requiring dialysis. • Sickle cell trait conferred a similar degree of risk as APOL1 gene variants, which are currently the most widely recognized genetic contributors to kidney disease in blacks.
New data from the REGARDS study show that blacks with the sickle cell trait are more likely to develop kidney failure requiring dialysis.
It is no secret that the United States —in particular, New York — needs more people to register as living organ donors. According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 100,000 people in the country are awaiting a kidney transplant.
Surgeons at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City use 3D technology, including glasses-free 3D monitors in the operating room, to care for patient with unusual kidney anatomy.
In February 1967, 6-year-old Tommy Hoag became the first Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) patient ever to undergo a kidney transplant. On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, Hoag and his childhood nephrologist Dr. Richard Fine reunited at the hospital to mark the 50th anniversary of Hoag's transplant.
Could lung cancer be hiding in kidney cancer patients? Researchers with the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Kidney Cancer Program studied patients with metastatic kidney cancer to the lungs and found that 3.5 percent of the group had a primary lung cancer tumor that had gone undiagnosed. This distinction can affect treatment choices and rates of survival.
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have identified genes that are linked to the underlying molecular defect in people with IgA nephropathy, an autoimmune kidney disease.
• Kidney rejection initiated by antibodies that were present before transplantation is linked with a better outcome that rejection due to antibodies that arise after transplantation.
A team engineered mice with the G1 and G2 APOL1 gene mutations that cause human-like kidney disease to study these gene variants found almost exclusively in people of West African descent. These mutations carry an increased risk of kidney disease. The study established that these mutations are disease causing.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), through funding from the NCCN Foundation® and Kidney Cancer Association, has published a German translation of the NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Kidney Cancer.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s (RWJUH) Kidney Transplant Program has been named one of 53 hospitals in the United States with the best organ transplant outcomes, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
An analysis of patient records reveals that, for many, an initial diagnosis of “acute kidney injury” using current clinical diagnostic methods may have been inaccurate.
• From 2001 to 2012, HIV+ kidney failure patients on the transplant waiting list were 28% less likely to receive a transplant compared with their HIV- counterparts. • They were half as likely to receive a kidney from a living donor.
Mount Sinai researchers say their study represents hope for a complication considered incurable and deadly
Taking popular heartburn medication for prolonged periods may lead to serious kidney damage, even in people who show no signs of kidney problems, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System. The drugs are sold under brand names such as Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium and Protonix.
Reducing sodium (salt) in the diet has been recommended to lower blood pressure and the risk of heart disease. However, in a new review article, University of Southern California researchers found that increasing dietary potassium is as important to improving the risk factors for cardiovascular and kidney disease as limiting dietary sodium.
• During rejection of a transplanted kidney, certain immune cells transform into connective tissue cells, which produce collagen and other fibers. • This transition, which is mediated by the TGF-/Smad3 signaling pathway, leads to scarring and decreased kidney function.
• Receiving advice on limiting salt consumption helped kidney disease patients lower their systolic blood pressure by an average of 11 mmHg. • Limiting salt intake also reduced excess fluid retention that is common among patients with kidney disease.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, working with a California biotech firm, have developed a potential drug to treat polycystic kidney disease – an incurable genetic disease that often leads to end-stage kidney failure
• Higher degrees of linguistic isolation were linked with a lower likelihood of transitioning from inactive to active status on the kidney transplant waiting list and with incomplete transplant evaluations. • The association of linguistic isolation appeared to be most influential among Hispanic transplant candidates.
Instead of running tests on live kidneys, researchers at Binghamton, University State University of New York have developed a model kidney for working out the kinks in medicines and treatments. Developed by Assistant Professor Gretchen Mahler and Binghamton biomedical engineering alumna Courtney Sakolish PhD ’16, the reusable, multi-layered and microfluidic device incorporates a porous growth substrate, with a physiological fluid flow, and the passive filtration of the capillaries around the end of a kidney, called the glomerulus, where waste is filtered from blood.
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is pleased to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to host the upcoming Kidney Innovation Summit. The Summit will take place at the Booz Allen Hamilton Center for Innovation in Washington, DC on February 9 – 10, 2017.
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