Characteristics associated with proteinuria - a predictor of decline in child kidney function - have been identified, according to a study appearing in the March 2009 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).
The findings indicate that the level of kidney impairment, the cause of kidney disease, and race are linked to proteinuria - the presence of protein in the urine. The results provide new information regarding the importance of proteinuria and the factors associated with its development in the largest group of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) ever studied.
In children with CKD, proteinuria has not been studied extensively and researchers did not know what factors are linked to its presence. To better understand proteinuria in young kidney disease patients, Craig Wong, MD, MPH (University of New Mexico) and his colleagues studied subjects enrolled in the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) cohort study, a trial designed to investigate the factors influencing the progression of CKD in children.