Feature Channels: Kidney Disease

• share
• favorite_border

The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) will bestow the President’s Medal to the award-winning actor and comedian George Lopez for his dedication to raising awareness of kidney health issues and his efforts to improve the lives of individuals with kidney disease through the George Lopez Foundation. Mr. Lopez will receive the society’s highest civilian honor at a ceremony at ASN Kidney Week 2015, on Thursday, November 5 in San Diego, CA. ASN represents nearly 16,000 kidney health professionals dedicated to leading the fight against kidney disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Diets rich in calcium decrease the risk of kidney stone recurrence, but calcium supplements may have the opposite effect. Research that investigated the effects of calcium supplements in kidney stone formers will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 November 3–8 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.

• share
• favorite_border

Testing for the markers may allow for earlier treatment to protect the kidneys

• share
• favorite_border

• In contrast to studies in the general population, tallness was associated with higher premature mortality risk and shorter life spans in patients on dialysis. • The association was observed in white, Asian, and American Indian/Alaskan native patients, but not in black patients. • The overall paradoxical relationship between height and premature death was not explained by concurrent illness, socioeconomic status, or differences in care.

• share
• favorite_border

Infection by virus cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major complication following kidney transplantation. CMV infection has been associated with increased kidney transplant failure and reduced patient survival. However, a new clinical study finds that age may be more important for long-term transplant and patient outcome.

• share
• favorite_border

A recent study is the first to examine and identify a link between kidney stones in children and thickened or hardened arteries — precursors to a wide variety of cardiovascular diseases. Understanding the connection between kidney stones and cardiovascular risk factors in children may help physicians and parents implement prevention measures to reduce future risk of stroke, heart attack or other forms of vascular disease for affected children.

• share
• favorite_border

• High urinary excretion levels of both sodium and potassium were linked with faster progression of chronic kidney disease. • Patients with chronic kidney disease tend to consume sodium above the recommended daily limit.

• share
• favorite_border

The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is one of 16 kidney health organizations participating in Kidney Community Advocacy Day 2015 in Washington, DC. More than 100 advocates will meet with Congressional offices to call for lawmakers’ support of increased research funding to accelerate development of new therapies for kidney diseases. Kidney health providers and patients will also urge passage of legislation that eliminates barriers to living donation and helps increase access to lifesaving transplants.

• share
• favorite_border

• Among kidney transplant recipients, patients with mostly IgG3 donor-specific HLA antibodies had a higher likelihood of organ rejection soon after transplantation. • If rejection occurred in those with mostly IgG4 antibodies, it was usually much later after transplantation.

• share
• favorite_border

• In a population-based study, poor kidney function was strongly related to decreased blood flow to the brain. • Poor kidney function was linked to stroke and dementia most strongly in participants with decreased blood flow to the brain.

• share
• favorite_border

Study shows that cell plasticity program resulting from kidney damage can be targeted to reverse disease and fibrosis.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients with higher levels of a key protein are at greater risk for severe kidney disease

• share
• favorite_border

• Blood levels of TMAO, a byproduct generated from intestinal bacterial as they metabolize dietary nutrients, progressively increase with advancing severity of kidney disease. • TMAO levels are dramatically reduced when kidney function is restored following kidney transplantation. • High TMAO levels are linked with an increased risk of atherosclerosis and premature death in patients with chronic kidney disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors significantly reduces delayed graft function in kidney transplant recipients when compared to normal body temperature, according to UCSF researchers and collaborators, a finding that could lead to an increase in the availability of kidneys for transplant.

• share
• favorite_border

• There was only a 5% error rate when patients with chronic kidney disease used mobile health technologies designed to help them use medications appropriately.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the University of Maryland have come up with a new definition of chaos that applies more broadly than Lyapunov exponents and other previous definitions of chaos. The new definition fits on a few lines, can be easily approximated by numerical methods, and works for a wide variety of chaotic systems.

• share
• favorite_border

• Proteins in the Wnt signaling pathway help drive kidney scarring that can lead to chronic kidney disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Tapping the potential of metabolomics, an emerging field focused on the chemical processes of metabolism, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a new and pivotal player in diabetic kidney disease.

• share
• favorite_border

The investigational drug patiromer quickly reduced elevated blood-potassium levels—a common life-threatening side effect of treatment for chronic diabetic kidney disease. In this year-long study of more than 300 patients, patiromer kept potassium levels under control for the length of the trial.

• share
• favorite_border

Among patients with diabetic kidney disease and hyperkalemia (elevated potassium levels in the blood), a potentially life-threatening condition, those who received the new drug patiromer, twice daily for four weeks, had significant decreases in potassium levels which lasted through one year, according to a study in the July 14 issue of JAMA.

• share
• favorite_border

• Certain electrocardiogram measures helped investigators identify a subgroup of individuals with chronic kidney disease who had substantially elevated risks of dying from heart disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the MRC’s Clinical Sciences Centre (CSC) in West London are the first to show that a small molecule circulates in the blood of people who are in the early stages of type 1 diabetes. A simple blood test could detect this biological marker years, maybe decades, before symptoms develop.

• share
• favorite_border

Other topics include resurgence of whales off southern California, treating chronic kidney disease, and a breakthrough in a heart-specific type of stem cell.

• share
• favorite_border

Experts have identified new strategies for using electronic health records (EHRs) to treat patients with chronic kidney disease. These recommendations may help clinicians and hospitals better manage individual patients with chronic conditions and identify groups of patients most likely to benefit from different treatment strategies.

• share
• favorite_border

The notion that geography often shapes economic and political destiny has long informed the work of economists and political scholars. Now a study led by medical scientists at Johns Hopkins reveals how geography also appears to affect the very survival of people with end-stage kidney disease in need of dialysis.

• share
• favorite_border

The percentage of adults beginning kidney dialysis who lived in zip codes with high poverty rates increased from 27.4 percent during the 1995-2004 time period to 34 percent in 2005-2010.

• share
• favorite_border

• Among children with chronic kidney disease, those with lower vitamin D levels had higher levels of blood markers related to kidney dysfunction as well as greater kidney function loss over time. • Five-year kidney survival was 75% in patients with vitamin D levels ≥50 nMol/L at the start of the study and 50% in those with lower levels.

• share
• favorite_border

It started out as a treatment for arthritis. But steered by science, it could become a first new approach in two decades for treating the damage that diabetes inflicts on the kidneys of millions of people.

• share
• favorite_border

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: aging & genetics, cancer, treatment for kidney disease, healthcare & wellbeing, environment, welcoming new leaders.

• share
• favorite_border

A new technique for treating polycystic kidney disease has been identified by researchers at The University of Manchester and UCL.

• share
• favorite_border

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: melanoma, relationships, color blindness, kidney replacement, oceanography, supercomputers, awards/honors.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at The University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have made a significant breakthrough in the fight against Membranous Nephropathy (MN) – a rare kidney disease which can lead to kidney failure.

• share
• favorite_border

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: social media trends, lyme disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV, lasers, Hubble, neurology, and the seafood industry.

• share
• favorite_border

Physicians treating hospitalized patients for conditions unrelated to the kidneys should pay close attention to common blood and urine tests for kidney function in order to prevent incidental injury to the organs that help cleanse the body of toxins, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health-led research suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at The University of Manchester have made an important finding that could help develop an early test for kidney disease.

• share
• favorite_border

A significant proportion of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have unsuspected chromosomal imbalances, including DNA anomalies that have been linked to neurocognitive disorders, according to a new Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) study.

• share
• favorite_border

Among dialysis patients, genetically related family members have about a 70% increased risk of cardiac arrest compared with unrelated dialysis patients. Spouses on dialysis do not have an increased risk.

• share
• favorite_border

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: Astronomy, Cardiology, Nephrology, Neurology, Neutrinos, oil spills, Toxicology, Cancer, and Nutrition

• share
• favorite_border

• Researchers have developed a system that could be used to identify novel drug candidates that protect the function of the kidney cells that are damaged in patients with chronic kidney disease. • One drug identified through the system effectively protected the kidney cells of rodents exposed to kidney damaging agents.

• share
• favorite_border

The Kidney Health Initiative (KHI) is seeking input from patients with kidney disease and their family members on future treatment options. The perspectives gathered in this new KHI project will help inform development of therapeutics and devices for kidney disease, which affects more than 20 million Americans.

• share
• favorite_border

• High parathyroid hormone levels and subsequent bone loss are major risk factors for worsening of coronary artery calcification in patients on dialysis.

• share
• favorite_border

• For older patients in need of a kidney transplant, rapid transplantation from an older deceased donor is superior to delayed transplantation from a younger donor. • Kidneys from older donors do not have sufficient longevity to provide younger patients with a lifetime of kidney function, but they do have sufficient longevity to provide older patients who have a shorter life expectancy with a lifetime of kidney function.

• share
• favorite_border

• Compared with uninfected (HIV-/HCV-) kidney transplant recipients, mono-infected HIV+ (HIV+/HCV-) recipients had similar 5-year and 10-year kidney survival rates, while HIV+ recipients co-infected with HCV (HIV+/HCV+) had worse kidney survival rates. • Patient survival among mono-infected HIV+ recipients was similar to uninfected recipients but was significantly lower for co-infected recipients.

• share
• favorite_border

Kidney recipients infected only with HIV do as well as uninfected recipients, but HIV-infected recipients co-infected with hepatitis C virus have poorer outcomes.

• share
• favorite_border

Cardiovascular researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have shown that a protein known as MG53 is not only present in kidney cells, but necessary for the organ to repair itself after acute injury.

• share
• favorite_border

Highlights • Among pregnant women, the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes—such as preterm delivery or the need for neonatal intensive care—increased across stages of chronic kidney disease. • The risks of intrauterine death or fetal malformations were not higher in women with chronic kidney disease.

• share
• favorite_border

• In kidney disease patients on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, enzyme activities involved in HDL metabolism and HDL maturation were significantly altered. • The normal function of HDL was also compromised in patients on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis.

• share
• favorite_border

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) will rise in the United States, according to a new report led by RTI International and published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases during March's National Kidney Month

• share
• favorite_border

An estimated 26 million people in the United States have chronic kidney disease, which can lead to complete kidney failure. Once the kidneys fail, patients either need to undergo dialysis treatments three times a week or have a kidney transplant to remain alive.

• share
• favorite_border

• In VA medical centers, patients started dialysis progressively earlier in the course of their kidney disease in more recent years. • There were no measurable differences in how sick patients were at the time of initiation or in the reasons for dialysis initiation to explain this trend.