• Kidney disease patients with detectable levels of a blood protein called high-sensitivity troponin T had up to a 5-fold increased risk of developing heart failure. • Those with high levels of a protein called N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide had a nearly 10-fold increased risk of developing heart failure.
Researchers at UC San Francisco and Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, may have found a predictor for a disorder affecting kidney transplant recipients that can accelerate organ failure, a discovery that eventually could allow for customized therapies and improved patient selection for transplant.
Scientists speculate that the highest risk factor for a kidney disease common to five Balkan nations is a plant commonly used in various Chinese herbal medicines.
• Dialysis drives progressive white matter brain injury due to blood pressure instability; however, patients who dialyzed at 0.5◦C below body temperature were completely protected against such white matter changes.
• Among new dialysis patients, the most frequently cited concerns were that patients felt they were doing fine on dialysis and felt uncomfortable asking someone to donate a kidney. • Older age was linked with having high health-related or psychosocial concerns, as was being a woman, being less educated, and having more comorbid illnesses. • Patients having such concerns had less than half the chance of getting listed for a transplant than those without them.
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:KERX) (the "Company") today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Ferric Citrate (formerly known as Zerenex) for the control of serum phosphorus levels in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) on dialysis.
Highlight • Among patients with chronic kidney disease, the risks of developing kidney failure or dying prematurely increased markedly in a step-wise fashion after each successive hospitalization for heart failure.
• Calcium build-up in the coronary artery walls was more useful for correctly predicting kidney disease patients’ risk of heart disease than other measures of atherosclerosis such as thickness of the carotid artery walls and narrowing of the arteries in the legs.
Calcium buildup in the coronary arteries of chronic kidney disease patients may be a strong indicator of heart disease risk, according to a new study released in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health assert that coronary calcium outperforms two other commonly used measures of subclinical atherosclerosis in predicting the risk of heart disease among individuals with kidney disease.
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) congratulates The New York Times for calling attention to transplant tourism and organ trafficking. Yet ASN is disappointed with the article’s characterization of dialysis and failure to address opportunities to improve this lifesaving therapy. ASN urges Congress to pass legislation to help transplant recipients and living donors.
• In 2 predominantly black dialysis clinics, women were less likely to want to undergo living donor kidney transplantation compared with men, despite being more likely than men to receive unsolicited offers for kidney transplants from family and friends. • Women were also less likely to have been evaluated for a kidney transplant.
New research in mice suggests that a class of drugs approved to treat leukemia and epilepsy also may be effective against kidney stones.
A new tool uses 11 questions to accurately calculate the probability that a patient will have another symptomatic kidney stone at 2, 5, or 10 years after the first stone.
Consuming fried foods and sugar-sweetened beverages is linked to a 50 percent increase in risk of death, according to a new study in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
Among patients on chronic hemodialysis, those with depressive symptoms and pain were more likely to abbreviate or miss dialysis sessions, visit the emergency department, and be hospitalized. Depressive symptoms were also linked with an increased risk of premature death.
There's a "critical need" for research and innovative new strategies to address health disparities and to improve health outcomes across all groups of people with cardiovascular disease, according to a special symposium feature in the August issue of The American Journal of Medical Sciences (AJMS), official journal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (SSCI). The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
• Ferric citrate effectively reduced blood phosphorus levels while increasing iron stores and decreasing the need for intravenous iron and anemia medications in dialysis patients. • The medication may help reduce complications and costs associated with kidney disease care.
• Among children with sporadic nephrotic syndrome, genetic mutations in the kidney’s filtration barrier were frequently linked with a lack of response to immunosuppressive treatments. • The genetic test was even more predictive than a kidney biopsy for identifying children who would not benefit from immunosuppressive therapies.
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the publication of results from the long-term, randomized, active control Phase 3 study of Zerenex (ferric citrate), the Company's investigational oral ferric iron-based phosphate binder, for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis. The PERFECTED study (PhosphatE binding and iRon delivery with FErric CiTrate in EsrD) was published online today in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
• Between 1999 and 2010, lower income regions in the US consistently had lower rates of living donation compared with higher income populations. • The difference in living donation rates between lower and higher income regions was much larger in recent years than it was in the past.
• The increased cost of an expensive drug that can prevent clots in dialysis catheters may be offset by lower costs for managing complications. • Additional studies are needed to determine the medication’s long-term cost and effectiveness.
Researchers at the George Washington University were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, calling for greater follow-up care for those with acute kidney injury, as these patients often present later in life with chronic kidney disease, and vice versa.
• Obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, and diabetes increase a person’s risk of developing chronic kidney disease decades later. • Early identification of such risk factors may help improve efforts to prevent kidney disease.
• In Tennessee and Florida, waiting times and other measures of geographic disparity in kidney transplantation became almost equal after the states adopted a Statewide Sharing variance to the national kidney allocation policy in the early 1990s. • Meanwhile, the geographic disparity in kidney transplantation became worse in other comparable states.
• Young black adults on dialysis living in poor neighborhoods had a higher risk of dying while still young compared with all other young black and white adults. • Among young adult dialysis patients living in poor neighborhoods, blacks had approximately a 1.5 times greater risk of dying compared with whites.
The results of a 20-year study confirm that people with Type 1 diabetes who have developed kidney complications can slow the progress of their complications by improving control of their blood glucose over the long term. This finding may lead to changes in clinical practice for this population.
Developing therapies for kidney disease can be made faster by adopting a new, more sensitive definition of kidney disease progression, according to a study published by JAMA.
A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that new therapies for kidney disease could be developed more quickly by revising the definition of kidney disease progression used during clinical trials. If adopted, the new definition could shorten the length of some clinical trials and also potentially encourage more clinical trials in kidney disease.
• Individuals’ risk of kidney cancer increased with decreasing kidney function. • Individuals with poor kidney function also had an increased risk of urothelial cancer • Kidney function was not linked with risk for other cancers, including prostate, breast, lung, and colorectal cancers.
An important and mysterious global public health concern is unfolding around chronic kidney disease of unknown origin.
(TORONTO, Canada – May 26, 2014) – A first-ever study from a large Canadian centre found that kidney transplant recipients lived longer and had better treatment success than patients on intensive home hemodialysis, but also had an increased risk of being hospitalized within the first year.
• After adjusting for demographic differences between kidney transplant recipients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and other kidney transplant recipients, PKD patients were 16% less likely to develop cancer than others who received a kidney transplant.
• Among patients with chronic kidney disease who were followed for an average of 1.3 years, those who walked for exercise were 33% less likely to die and 21% less likely to need dialysis or a kidney transplant. • The more patients walked, the less likely they were to die or to need dialysis or a transplant.
• Simulation models predict that a newly approved kidney allocation policy will lead to an average 7.0% increase in median patient life-years per transplant and an average 2.8% increase in median allograft years of life. • The policy may also improve access to transplantation for highly sensitized candidates but reduce access for older patients.
• Among kidney failure patients on dialysis who were treated in the hospital, one additional doctor visit in the month following hospital discharge was estimated to reduce the probability of 30-day hospital readmission by 3.5%. • Seeing kidney failure patients one additional time in the month following discharge could save $240 million in health care costs each year.
For patients with chronic kidney disease, statin treatment: • Lowered LDL cholesterol, • Lowered the risk of heart disease and stroke, • Had no impact on the development of kidney failure, • Was safe and well tolerated.
On May 1, 2014, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) will join 14 other leading kidney organizations in Washington, DC, to push for essential change in kidney care. Participants in Kidney Community Advocacy Day, representing the nation’s kidney patients and health professionals, will meet with government leaders to discuss two issues that will improve the treatment and quality of life for millions of Americans: increasing federal investment in kidney research, and extending lifetime immunosuppressive drug coverage for kidney transplant recipients.
• In Australia, kidney failure patients from the most advantaged areas were less likely to use home dialysis and more likely to use in-center hemodialysis than patients from the most disadvantaged areas. • Patients from the most advantaged areas were more likely to use private hospitals than those from the most disadvantaged areas.
• Dialysis patients with higher BMI, waist circumference, and abdominal fat measures had poorer scores on a 6-minute walking test. • Patients with more muscle mass had better scores on the walking test as well as better scores on physical and mental health questionnaires
Certain prenatal risk factors are associated with the development of chronic kidney disease in children, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Future studies should investigate whether modifying these factors could help protect children’s kidney health.
• Kidneys from most patients with chronic kidney disease were positive for active cytomegalovirus infection. • Patients with higher levels of anti-cytomegalovirus antibodies in their blood had lower number of red blood cells. • Cytomegalovirus blocks a protein needed to make a hormone that in turn stimulates red blood cell production.
• Low doses of atrasentan, an endothelin receptor A inhibitor, lowered urinary protein excretion by 36% in patients with diabetes and kidney disease. • Atrasentan also lowered blood pressure and cholesterol levels without causing major side effects.
The President of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) testified before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee that a prize competition could help spur innovation in kidney disease research.
• In kidney disease patients, 30 minutes of walking improved the responsiveness of certain immune cells to a bacterial challenge and induced a systemic anti-inflammatory environment in the body. • Six months of regular walking reduced immune cell activation and markers of systemic inflammation.
In African American patients with chronic kidney disease, poor quality of life was linked with increased risks of disease progression and heart problems
• States with broader Medicaid coverage among low-income nonelderly adults had lower incidences of kidney failure from 2001 through 2008. • Low-income nonelderly kidney failure patients with Medicaid had better access to care in states with broader Medicaid coverage.
• In rats with kidney disease, functioning of the kidney improved when the organ was fused with the omentum, a fatty fold of tissue that lies close to the kidney and is a rich source of stem cells. • Stem cells from a chronic kidney disease patient’s own omentum may help heal diseased kidneys without the need for an outside source of cells.
Highlights • Older adults are the fastest growing population with end-stage renal disease in the U.S. • The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) has released an educational video for medical professionals and key information for older patients.
Investigators studying chronic kidney disease have uncovered abnormal molecular signaling pathways from disease initiation to irreversible kidney damage, kidney failure, and death. Their results point to new drug targets for the disease.
The kidneys, two very important organs located in your back, help to continuously clean out wastes and extra fluid from your body. One in 10 Americans develops kidney disease due to diabetes, high blood pressure or a family history of kidney failure. For March’s Kidney Awareness month, doctors from the Mount Sinai Health System discuss risk factors associated with the disease and offer ways to help protect your kidneys.
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