1) Frequent or extended dialysis treatments during the day or at night may improve patients’ survival compared with conventional dialysis. 2) Nighttime or daily dialysis may also improve patients’ health and reduce their need for medications. 3) Approximately 2 million patients in the world receive some sort of dialysis treatment.
A Loyola University Medical Center patient has become the final link in the world's longest living-donor kidney transplant chain. The chain involved 30 donors, 30 recipients and 17 hospitals nationwide. Loyola is the only Illinois hospital in the chain.
Highlights: 1) Certain treatment reminders meant to improve primary care physicians’ prescribing habits for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are ineffective. 2) Nearly 20% of people over the age of 65 years have CKD, and primary care physicians care for the vast majority of them. 3) Additional studies are needed to find ways to help improve physicians’ care of CKD patients.
-New study published in Science Translational Medicine demonstrates microRNA-21 contributes to fibrogenesis in the kidney -Regulus, in partnership with Sanofi, developing novel anti-fibrotic therapies targeting microRNAs
Patients with chronic kidney disease who received the vitamin D compound paricalcitol for up to 48 weeks did not show improvement on measures of cardiac structure, function, or left ventricular mass, compared to patients who received placebo, according to a study in the February 15 issue of JAMA.
Tenofovir, one of the most effective and commonly prescribed antiretroviral medications for HIV/AIDS, is associated with a significant risk of kidney damage and chronic kidney disease that increases over time, according to a study of more than 10,000 patients led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
1) Home-based dialysis treatments for kidney failure are on the rise, particularly in developing countries. 2) Developed countries appear to be turning to home-based dialysis less. 3) Approximately 2 million kidney disease patients in the world receive some sort of dialysis treatment.
Highlights • More than 20 million adults in the United States have chronic kidney disease. • Drugs that treat red blood cell deficiencies are critical for maintaining many chronic kidney disease patients’ health. • Experts comment on newly released federal recommendations for these drugs.
Highlights • High levels of TNF receptors in the blood increased diabetes patients’ risk of developing kidney problems by three- to five-fold a decade later. • Measuring blood levels of TNF receptors may help predict which patients’ kidneys are in jeopardy, and targeting TNF receptors may help protect them. • Half a million people in the U.S. have kidney failure and require dialysis or a kidney transplant, and 44% of these cases are due to diabetes.
Highlights • Bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract occurs more than 10 times as often in kidney failure patients than in individuals in the general population. • Upper gastrointestinal bleeding causes serious health problems—and even early deaths—for many patients with kidney failure. • More than 600,000 patients in the United States have kidney failure.
1) Certain measures of kidney health can also predict who is likely to die prematurely. 2) Blood levels of the proteins creatinine, beta trace protein, and cystatin C may portray aspects of health that go beyond the kidneys. 3) Future studies should investigate whether a panel of markers of kidney function would provide a better prediction of an individual’s prognosis than any one marker alone.
1) Among patients on dialysis, African Americans tend to live longer than whites. 2) This survival difference only exists among patients with high levels of inflammation. 3) Determining inflammation’s role may improve survival for all patients treated with dialysis.
Mayo Clinic in Florida is now offering kidney and pancreas transplants to HIV positive patients with advanced kidney disease and diabetes.
Highlights: 1) People with type 1 diabetes are at high risk of developing kidney disease. 2) Intensive diabetes therapy can preserve kidney function in patients with type 1 diabetes. 3) Between one million and three million Americans may have type 1 diabetes. Each year, more than 15,000 children and 15,000 adults - approximately 80 people per day - are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the United States.
Highlights: 1) Medicare will soon reduce reimbursements to some dialysis facilities, which may lead to closures. Patients will have to drive further to get care at other facilities, which could compromise their health. 2) The Healthy People initiative provides 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 presents new kidney-related objectives.
Highlights: 1) Sitagliptin is as effective as glipizide at lowering blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. 2) Sitagliptin is less likely than glipizide to cause dangerously low blood sugar levels. 3) Patients on sitagliptin tend to lose weight, while those on glipizide gain weight.
Highlights: 1) Pomegranate juice lowers kidney disease patients’ cholesterol, blood pressure, and the need for blood pressure medications. 2) More than 15% of kidney disease patients take herbs or dietary supplements that the National Kidney Foundation says may be harmful to their health.
Highlights: 1) Pediatric racial minorities are much less likely than whites to get kidney transplants before they need dialysis, regardless of their families’ income. 2) Among children with kidney failure waiting for a transplant, blacks with no health insurance are more likely to die than whites, while Hispanics are less likely to die than other racial groups regardless of insurance status.
1) Healthy individuals over 70 years old can safely donate a kidney. 2) Kidneys from elderly donors do not last as long as those from younger living donors, but they last just as long as organs from younger deceased donors. 3) Nearly 90,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a kidney transplant, and many will die before a suitable organ becomes available.
1) Patients with an autoimmune disease called anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis produce antibodies that damage blood vessels in the kidneys. 2) Patients with the disease harbor elevated blood levels of the protein Flt1, which hinders blood vessel repair. 3) Inhibiting Flt1 may help prevent kidney failure in the 1:50,000 patients around the world who have anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis, plus those with other more frequent diseases involving blood vessels in the kidneys.
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