A new research study by Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute found that utilization of invasive procedures on hemodialysis conduits—artificially constructed shuts used by many individuals who require dialysis—increased markedly from 2001 through 2015 for nephrologists and declined for radiologists. The study is published online in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR).
In his lab, UdeM professor Alexis Vallée-Bélisle is busy perfecting a biosensor that patients with kidney disease, heart disease or other chronic illnesses can use without leaving home.
• Volume overload, or too much fluid in the body, is a frequent problem in patients with kidney failure initiating peritoneal dialysis.
• Volume overload tends to improve over time after starting peritoneal dialysis, but is consistently higher in males vs. females and in patients with diabetes vs. those without.
• Volume overload is associated with a higher risk of premature death.
An 84-year old becomes the oldest living kidney donor after donating to his 72-year old neighbor. Also, talks about how you are never too old to save someone's life.
Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) researchers have shown the feasibility of bioengineering vascularized functional renal tissues for kidney regeneration, developing a partial augmentation strategy that may be a more feasible and practical approach than creating whole organs.
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) today announced the appointment of Michael Allon, MD, as the first Editor-in-Chief of Kidney360, ASN’s new online journal launching in January 2020.
BOSTON -- (May 13, 2019) -- A new study from Joslin Diabetes Center has proven that certain biological protective factors play a large role in preventing diabetic kidney disease in certain people. The study was published today in Diabetes Care. This study built on the findings from a 2017 Joslin Medalist Study of protective factors and diabetic kidney disease (or DKD).
The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, in partnership with the American Association of Kidney Patients is hosting the first ever Global Summit on Innovations in Patient-Centered Kidney Care.
In research that could make biopsies more useful for many diseases, scientists have used a powerful new tool to zero in on individual cells in a patient’s diseased organ and reveal the cells’ underlying glitches in gene expression—information that may allow for more precise and effective treatment. The findings, by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Health System, and other medical institutions, are published online today in Nature Immunology.
A team led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers says it has identified two protein biomarkers in urine that may one day be used to better diagnose acute interstitial nephritis (AIN), an underdiagnosed but treatable kidney disorder that impairs renal function in the short term and can lead to chronic kidney disease, permanent damage or renal failure if left unchecked.
Editor’s Highlights include papers on CRISPR screening, predicting renal toxicity, PAHs and endocrine effects on testicular gap junctions, and vincristine-induced atresia in ovarian follicles
A roadmap to create an implantable dialysis system that would allow patients to treat kidney failure at home has won researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), UC San Francisco (UCSF), and Silicon Kidney one of 15 cash prizes in the inaugural KidneyX’s Redesign Dialysis Phase I competition.
Washington, DC (May 2, 2019) – On behalf of the more than 40 million children, adolescents, and adults living with kidney diseases in the United States, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) applauds the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations (LHHS) Subcommittee for their support of a Fiscal Year 2020 budget of $41.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase of $2 billion above the 2019 enacted level.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the American Society of Nephrology have selected 15 winning teams for Phase 1 of the KidneyX Redesign Dialysis prize competition. Through a series of prize competitions offering cash awards and other incentives, KidneyX aims to accelerate the development of innovative medical products and approaches that can significantly improve the way we prevent, diagnose, and treat kidney diseases.
• In middle-aged adults, following a healthy plant-based diet was linked with a lower risk of developing chronic kidney disease.
• Following an overall plant-based diet or a healthy plant-based diet was linked with experiencing a slower decline in kidney function.
BOSTON – (April 22, 2019) -- In a breakthrough study published today in Nature Medicine, researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified a group of 17 circulating inflammatory proteins that are consistently associated with the development and progression of diabetic kidney disease. These 17 proteins, called the Kidney Risk Inflammatory Signature (KRIS), could allow doctors to determine the risk of progression to end stage renal disease in a patient with diabetic kidney disease.
Study found more than half of older adults with end-stage kidney disease died within a year of starting dialysis. Nearly one in four older dialysis patients (23 percent) succumbed to the disease within a month of starting treatment.
Analysis reveals markedly higher death rates than previous reports of dialysis outcomes among older patients.
Findings can help patients and clinicians make better-informed decisions to determine optimal course of treatment.
• The Time to Reduce Mortality in ESRD (TiME) trial was a large pragmatic trial demonstration project designed to determine the benefits of hemodialysis sessions that are longer than many patients currently receive.
• The trial was conducted through a partnership between academic investigators and 2 large dialysis provider organizations using a highly centralized implementation approach.
• Although the trial accomplished most of its demonstration project objectives, uptake of the intervention was insufficient to determine whether longer sessions improve outcomes.
The American Association of Kidney Patients and the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences are pleased to announce a major kidney disease education collaboration, the Global Summit on Innovations in Patient-Centered Kidney Care.
After Hermine Honarvar Rule was told that she was in critical need of a kidney transplant, two relatives and a friend each volunteered to give up a kidney to help save her. But during the screening process all three candidates were discovered to have health issues that would disqualify them from donating. Thankfully, her husband Mark turned out to be the right match for his wife. “We were truly made for each other,” he jokes today.
• A large genome-wide association study has identified 14 variants—including 9 new variants—at different locations in the genome that are linked to the development of kidney stones.
• Four of the variants were related to obesity, high triglycerides, or high blood uric acid levels. The remaining 10 variants were associated with kidney- or electrolyte-related traits that might affect crystallization pathways that lead to kidney stone formation.
• The prevalence of moderate-to-extreme pruritus in patients with non-dialysis chronic kidney disease was 24% and was more likely in older patients, women, and in those with advanced kidney disease, among other health conditions.
• More severe pruritus was associated with progressively poorer measures of quality of life and a higher likelihood of self-reported depression and restless sleep.
Here's a great story about a Kentucky woman who donated a kidney to a perfect stranger from New York who 21 years earlier had undergone a heart-liver transplant. The two women met on the Matching Donors website, a non-profit organization that provides a platform where patients and potential donors can meet. All three organ transplants took place at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
University at Buffalo researchers have developed a new method to more accurately predict tumor growth rates, a crucial statistic used to schedule screenings and set dosing regimens in cancer treatment.
For the first time, a person living with HIV has donated a kidney to a transplant recipient also living with HIV. A multidisciplinary team from Johns Hopkins Medicine completed the living donor HIV-to-HIV kidney transplant on Mar. 25. The doctors say both the donor and the recipient are doing well.
White blood cells known as B cells have been shown to be effective for predicting which cancer patients will respond to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, according to a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Study results will be presented April 2 at the AACR Annual Meeting 2019 in Atlanta.
• Very few apps related to chronic kidney disease are highly rated by patients or physicians
• Patient ratings of smartphone apps related to managing kidney disease correlated poorly with both physician ratings and consumer ratings.
• Two new studies provide insights on how physicians can effectively and efficiently evaluate patient-reported outcomes and health-related quality of life in individuals with kidney disease.
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 support KidneyX, a public-private partnership to accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases.
Common medications prescribed to treat heartburn, acid reflux and ulcers are linked to increased risks for kidney failure and chronic kidney disease, found a recent University at Buffalo study.
On behalf of the more than 720,000 Americans with kidney failure whose lives depend on either a kidney transplant or dialysis to survive and their families, the 40 million Americans with kidney diseases, and the more than 20,000 ASN members who are physicians, scientists, nurses, and health professionals, ASN applauds the leadership of HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar, II, in confronting the issue of a three-year statutory restriction on Medicare coverage of immunosuppressant drugs following a kidney transplant. STATEMENT OF AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY (ASN) PRESIDENT MARK E. ROSENBERG, MD, FASN, ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS) SECRETARY AZAR’S ANNOUNCEMENT ON IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE COVERAGE FOR KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
Washington, DC (March 15, 2019) – On behalf of the more than 720,000 Americans with kidney failure whose lives depend on either a kidney transplant or dialysis to survive and their families, the 40 million Americans with kidney diseases, and the more than 20,000 ASN members
• After examining comprehensive pathology findings and clinical, immunological, and outcome data pertaining to patients with transplant glomerulopathy, investigators identified 5 groups of patients with distinct features, as well as different outcomes in terms of survival rates of transplanted kidneys.
• In a phase 3 clinical trial, tenapanor significantly lowered elevated blood phosphate in patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis, resulting in an average reduction of 1.0–1.2 mg/dL over 8 weeks.
• Side effects were largely limited to softening of stool and more frequent bowel movements.
• Exposure to secondhand smoke was linked with a higher prevalence of kidney disease, as well as development of incident kidney disease.
• This association was present even at low levels of exposure.
On behalf of the 40 million Americans living with kidney diseases and their families and the more than 20,000 ASN members who are physicians, scientists, nurses, and health professionals, ASN applauds the bold vision and leadership of HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar II in establishing an HHS-wide comprehensive kidney strategy and wholeheartedly agree that “we’ve waited long enough. We just need renewed ambition and the right policies.
Scientists from Utrecht University, University Medical Center Utrecht and Hubrecht Institute have successfully created kidney organoids from urine cells.
• Payments by organ transplant recipients and Medicare decreased significantly following the introduction of generic immunosuppressive medications.
• Large differences in out-of-pocket payments for immunosuppressive medications between Part D beneficiaries who did and did not qualify for the Medicare low-income subsidy suggest that recipients with resources just above the threshold to qualify for the subsidy may experience considerable financial strain.
Nine patients at Penn Medicine have been cured of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) following lifesaving heart transplants from deceased donors who were infected with the disease, according to a study published in the American Journal of Transplantation.
• A set of interventions designed to improve care for patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) was associated with reductions in length of hospital stay, shorter duration of AKI episodes, and an increase in AKI incidence that likely reflected improved recognition.
• The intervention also led to improvements in several metrics related to AKI care, including AKI recognition, medication optimization, and fluid assessment by clinicians.
• People with kidney failure are nearly ten times as likely as other Medicare beneficiaries to undergo lower extremity amputation during their final year of life.
• Despite having a poor prognosis, individuals with kidney failure who had a lower extremity amputation in their last year of life had a greater likelihood of admission to—and prolonged stays in—acute and subacute care settings during this time. They also were more likely to die in the hospital and discontinue dialysis, and to spend fewer days receiving hospice services.
Mining a large database of adverse reactions to medications, UC San Diego researchers found that people who took proton pump inhibitors (e.g., Prilosec, Nexium) for heartburn and acid reflux were more likely to experience kidney disease than people who took other forms of antacid.
The disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) — marked by the attack on joints, skin, and kidneys by the body’s immune system — is linked to an abnormal mix of bacteria in the gut. This is according to a new study led by scientists at NYU School of Medicine.
Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in kidney disease patients who are not on dialysis. But a new study finds that statins are used by only 21.8 percent such patients who do not already have cardiovascular disease or diabetes or have not been diagnosed with high cholesterol.
A combination of two drugs – one of them an immunotherapy agent – could become a new standard, first-line treatment for patients with metastatic kidney cancer, says an investigator from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, reporting results from a phase 3 clinical trial.
In a population-based study, both patients on dialysis and those who received kidney transplants experienced over 2.5-times higher risks of cancer death than age- and sex-matched individuals without kidney failure.
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