Articles related to KIDNEY DISEASE

85-year-old woman with Hx of stage 3 chronic kidney disease New onset dyspnea and intermittent mild fever Slight difficulty opening her mouth; no dental caries or cervical lymphadenopathy Elevated CRP Elevated BUN Follow the case as it develops.

The founding editor of Comprehensive Clinical Nephrology teases out for us our physiologic response to salt, sugar, fat, and water that creates a recipe for obesity – a recipe being used daily by many Americans with obvious results. His recommendation? “Drinking more water and reducing salt intake offer cheap, easy and healthy strategies that may prevent or treat obesity.” Click to see the evidence behind the conclusion.

A newly developed prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor (agents that increase endogenous erythropoietin production) holds the promise of improving outcomes for patients with anemia of chronic kidney disease. Randomized controlled trials have found these drugs to be at least as effective as erythropoiesis-stimulating agents.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said “no” to Akebia Therapeutics’ drug application for vadadustat, a therapy to treat anemia due to chronic kidney disease. Vadadustat is an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor designed to mimic the physiologic effect of altitude on oxygen availability. The FDA cited safety concerns as the main reason for it rejecting the application.

In contradistinction to recent reports that showed increased risk of death and no clinical benefit with escalation of allopurinol for progressive CKD, this 5-year population-based review found no increased mortality risk in escalating allopurinol dose and achieving target serum urate levels.

Test your knowledge on this case study from JAMA Oncology! Full text available with registration, or you can access the Clinical Challenge from your institution. Good luck!