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.
• 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.
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.
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.
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.
Katalin Susztak, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Medicine and Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $3 million grant from a consortium of pharmaceutical companies to identify genes and other characteristics that are signs of rapid decline in kidney function in patients with diabetic kidney disease.
A blood test used to determine the health and well-being of dialysis patients produces worryingly inconsistent results depending on which testing method is used, new research reveals.
A routine blood test that measures kidney function can be a valuable predictor of short-term outcomes for stroke patients, according to a study led by a neurologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
A research team led by Columbia University has discovered that loss of function of the CRKL gene causes kidney and urinary tract defects in people with DiGeorge syndrome, solving a 60-year-old medical mystery.
• A new study found that patients on chronic hemodialysis with depression are frequently not interested in modifying or initiating anti-depressant treatment.
Kidney specialists caring for these patients are often unwilling to modify or initiate anti-depressant therapy even when patients are willing to accept recommendations from nurses to do so
• Decreased blood levels of a protein called soluble klothos were linked with an increased likelihood of experiencing kidney function decline in a group elderly well-functioning adults.
Last year, Shirley Polk’s life changed forever. On Friday, it changed again, thanks to a meeting she had with 15 strangers who helped save her life.
Last September, the 67-year old, whose liver and kidney suddenly failed after she developed acute autoimmune disease, received a transplant of both organs at Reagan UCLA Medical Center. On Jan. 13, at an event arranged by UCLA, she met 15 of the 59 strangers whose blood donations made possible the transplant surgeries that saved her life. Thanks to her donors’ generosity, Polk was transfused with 32 units of whole blood, 27 units of plasma and 11 units of platelets.
Patients who have chronic kidney disease but are not on dialysis have higher out-of-pocket healthcare expenses than even stroke and cancer patients, according to a study published in BMC Nephrology.
• In a phase 3 trial of patients with chronic kidney disease, 52.1% of patients receiving oral ferric citrate experienced a significant boost in hemoglobin levels (a reflection of red blood cell counts) compared with 19.1% of patients receiving placebo.
• A treatment effect was seen as early as 1-2 weeks after the start of treatment, and the response was durable.
Many of our cells are equipped with a hairlike "antenna" that relays information about the external environment to the cell, and scientists have already discovered that the appearance and disappearance of these so-called primary cilia are synchronized with the process of cellular duplication, called mitosis.
Rajnish Mehrotra, MD, FASN, begins his 6-year team as Editor-in-Chief of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) on January 1, 2017, alongside an incoming editorial team of 17 highly accomplished nephrology researchers.
• Among nursing home residents in the last year of life, patients with kidney failure were far less likely to have advance directives that put limitations on treatments and designated surrogate decision makers compared with other nursing home residents with serious illnesses.
• Advance directives with these components were associated with a lower use of intensive interventions at the end of life.
• Nearly all kidney failure patients with an advance directive putting limitations on treatment received end-of-life care that was concordant with their preferences.
• Hemodialysis patients tend to have denser blood clots than individuals without kidney disease.
• Dense blood clots were linked to an increased risk of premature death from cardiovascular and other causes.