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Children with hypertension have trouble with goal-directed tasks

Children with high blood pressure are not as good at complicated, goal-directed tasks, have more working memory problems and are not as adept at planning as their peers without hypertension, according to recent research.

24 Feb 2009

New formula accurately measures kidney function in children

Measuring a child's kidney function has traditionally been time-consuming, costly, and difficult to perform, but a new equation that uses parameters collected at routine office visits can effectively accomplish this, according to a study appearing in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology ( JASN ).

21 Jan 2009

Older women less likely than men to be listed on a kidney transplant list

A Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon has found strong evidence that women over 45 are significantly less likely to be placed on a kidney transplant list than their equivalent male counterparts, even though women who receive a transplant stand an equal chance of survival.

13 Jan 2009

Study compares strategies for BK virus nephropathy

For kidney transplant recipients with a serious complication called BK virus-associated nephropathy (BKVAN), promptly cutting back on anti-rejection drugs reduces the risk of losing the kidney (graft loss), according to a report in the November Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

26 Nov 2008

Stents no help for patients with narrow kidney arteries

Using stents to open up kidney arteries is commonly done in patients with atherosclerotic renovascular disease, but the procedure provides no benefit, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

10 Nov 2008

Depressed dialysis patients more likely to be hospitalized or die, researcher finds

Dialysis patients diagnosed with depression are nearly twice as likely to be hospitalized or die within a year than those who are not depressed, a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher has found.

14 Sep 2008

An automated wearable artificial kidney

Two researchers from UCLA and the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System have developed a design for an automated, wearable artificial kidney, or AWAK, that avoids the complications patients often suffer with traditional dialysis.

10 Jul 2008

NGAL protein levels in simple urine test speed diagnosis of failing kidneys

Walk into any emergency department complaining of chest pain and you are likely to have blood drawn. Within hours it should be clear whether you've had a heart attack, based on enzyme levels in your blood and whether those levels reveal the tissue damage normally associated with a heart attack or other major cardiac event.

2 Jun 2008

Expert says solve kidney donor crisis by paying for organs

A senior medical specialist has caused controversy over his comments regarding organ donations.

5 May 2008

Creatinine increase in elderly means increased renal disease, mortality

Even small increases in serum creatinine levels during hospitalization raise the risk of end stage renal disease and mortality of elderly patients over the long term, according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

16 Apr 2008

Angioplasty and stenting for renal artery lesions

The largest-ever randomized study to evaluate the effectiveness of catheter-based interventions in patients with narrowing of the renal artery has shown that angioplasty and stenting offer no benefit over medical therapy.

2 Apr 2008

Organ sales and moral travails - Iran's system of compensated organ donation

The United States suffers from an acute shortage of kidneys for transplant, with 73,000 people waiting for deceased donors to make organs available.

24 Mar 2008

Study identifies reasons patients referred late to nephrologists

Some patients with kidney disease aren't referred to kidney specialists in time to delay disease progression and improve their prognosis for a variety of reasons, according to researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.

1 Mar 2008

Urine protein microalbuminuria may be present before hypertension diagnosis in at-risk adolescents

A protein that is an early indicator of kidney dysfunction in adults may predict hypertension in black adolescents, Medical College of Georgia researchers have found.

28 Feb 2008

Living donor swap for kidney transplants

New and innovative programs to obtain donor organs have the potential to revolutionize kidney transplantation.

13 Aug 2007

Changing face of dialysis care in the United States

As medical, economic, and policy trends converge to alter the way dialysis care is organized and financed, protecting the unique relationship between dialysis patients and the kidney specialists who direct their care is a top priority, according to a special feature in the July Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

17 Jun 2007

Diagnosis and referrals for kidney disease fall well short of need

Results of a national study of 304 U.S. physicians, in which "mock" patients' symptoms were presented for diagnosis, suggest that a sizeable percentage of primary care doctors probably fail to properly diagnose and refer patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

3 Aug 2006