Kidneys are small organs in our body that work like a filter.
They clean our blood and get rid of the waste. Sometimes, kidneys can suddenly stop working well.
This condition is known as Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Even though AKI is temporary, it can turn into a more serious and possibly deadly problem called Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), or cause heart issues.
Patients in hospitals often get AKI because of stress from medical treatments or surgeries. This can make their recovery longer and can even cause long-term damage to their kidneys.
New Discoveries in Kidney Disease
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine conducted a study on this issue.
They found that specific signals or “biomarkers” in a patient’s blood and urine can help doctors predict if AKI will turn into CKD. The team published their findings in JCI Insight on March 23.
“Roughly 1 in 5 patients in hospitals get AKI. This makes them more likely to get CKD later,” says Dr. Chirag Parikh, who led the study.
He explains that the rate of AKI in hospitals is increasing, so they wanted to find out more about how AKI turns into CKD.
CKD is a significant health problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 37 million people in the U.S. have CKD, making it one of the leading causes of death in the country.
What the Research Found
The research team looked at over 600 patients in hospitals who had AKI. They checked for nine different biomarkers in the patients’ blood and urine several times over a year.
Their goal was to see if changes in these biomarkers could help predict if the AKI would turn into CKD.
The researchers discovered that an increase in the biomarkers KIM-1 and MCP-1 in the urine and TNFRI in the blood could mean a higher risk of CKD.
On the other hand, an increase in a urine biomarker called UMOD could mean a lower risk of CKD.
Dr. Parikh believes these findings could be very helpful. “By monitoring these biomarkers, we can make better plans for patients after they leave the hospital.
This includes arranging for them to see a kidney specialist and managing their medications properly,” says Dr. Parikh.
What’s Next?
The researchers’ findings are promising, but they believe more studies are needed to fully understand how AKI turns into CKD.
By continuing this important work, they hope to come up with more effective ways to detect and manage kidney diseases early. This could potentially save many lives in the future.
If you care about kidney health, please read studies about common eating habits that may harm your kidney health, and these common vegetables may reduce kidney damage caused by diabetes.
For more information about kidney health, please see recent studies about how bad kidneys can lead to heart disease, and results showing this common diabetes drug may reduce chronic kidney disease.
The study was published in JCI Insight.
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