Kidney Dialysis News

Dialysis companies grilled over rising costs

2012-01-26T18:05:00.001Z

The Oregon Medical Insurance Pool (OMIP) decided that, when its dialysis costs rose from $7 million to $20 million, in a mere three years, it was time to have a word with the two biggest dialysis companies and the American Kidney Fund. After all this represents inflation of around 100% per year! Not quite what the rest of the world is seeing as an inflation rate. According to an article in

KDN's Greatest Hits

2012-01-04T11:36:00.000Z

As it's January, and due to the way the blog moves posts out of sight (but not site), I thought a review of our most popular posts would be in order. It will also enable you to easily look back at posts you may have missed. (Or why not deliberately look at some of the older posts from the selection in the Blog Archive list on the left?) By far and away the most popular post is Cost comparison

Genetic link indicating susceptibility to glomerulonephritis

2011-12-29T11:32:00.002Z

It is well known that kidney disease affects people from some backgrounds more than others. And a recent report has now identified key genes which show a susceptibility to the kidney disease Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy (sometimes shortened IgAN). The article is currently available in the advanced on line issue of Nature Genetics, but will eventually appear in the next print edition of this

Illegal Kidney Trading

2011-11-25T18:57:00.001Z

We sometimes see this sort of thing in movies and tv programs, but many of us think it is just some plot line to make a show around. Wrong. Two news items caught my eye today, one from Viet Nam, the other from Pakistan, both dated 25th November. The story from Viet Nam involved a trader ring, who persuade others to cross the border to China and sell one of their kidneys. Two of the gang

DaVita buys another company

2011-11-14T13:05:00.000Z

DaVita is the second biggest dialysis company in the US where it runs a large number of dialysis centers. It has operations in Singapore and Bangalore as well, and is looking at China as a future market. But is also has plans for Europe, where it already has a subsidiary. It was reported recently in the Denver Post that DaVita has acquired a German dialysis company, ExtraCorp AG, a company that

Diabetes Mellitus Takes Its Toll

2011-11-11T12:34:00.000Z

A recent study of patients with diabetes mellitus showed that the risk of developing chronic kidney disease rises with multiple episodes of acute kidney injury during hospital stays for patients with diabetes. Acute kidney injury is common in hospitalized patients, and the research showed that over half of them required at least one hospitalization during the follow up period, and 30% of those

Texas Hold 'Em Benefit

2011-11-10T12:57:00.001Z

In a dialysis blog you might be a bit surprised by this post's title, so let me explain. Alport Syndrome Hope for Cure Foundation will be the recipient of funds raised at the 3rd Annual Texas Hold 'Em Tournament held on 11th November at the Gleneagles Country Club in Plano, Dallas. The goal is to raise money to run a scientific research meeting into Alport Syndrome, a rare kidney disease,

Jonah Lomu - Update

2011-11-10T12:17:00.001Z

There have been several more news items on the Rugby star's condition. He is reported as recovering and still on regular dialysis, but has been given a slim chance of a "normal" life. He has withdrawn from the charity boxing match mentioned in the previous article. PS If you want to see what he was like as a player, just watch this compilation of him in action. There are many shots where he

New Zealand Rubgy Hero Jonah Lumo in Kidney Drama

2011-10-17T13:17:00.001+01:00

Jonah Lumo, the New Zealand Rugby legend, had another kidney scare recently, but was discharged from hospital a few days ago. At his peak, Lumo was a true legend in rubgy and was responsible for many of new Zealand's international wins in the late 1990s. He played in 63 rugby Test Matches and two World cups. Yet one year after his début on the international scene in 1995 he was diagnosed

Flu and the dialysis patient

2011-10-10T14:00:00.001+01:00

As winter comes closer and closer, it's time for dialysis patients to think about flu and vaccinations. For most people flu is a problem but just like any other illness. For those on dialysis with CKD, it's a bit more serious and can result in pneumonia and other equally serious problems. It really is worth speaking to your doctor and dialysis specialist about getting vaccinated. Fresenius in

Longer intervals between dialysis not good

2011-09-27T16:28:00.001+01:00

We noticed this news item popping up in many news sites, based on a recent research article in the New England Journal of Medicine. The doctors involved looked at a large number of patients (32,065 to be exact) from the End Stage Renal Disease Clinical Performance Measures Project - a project that gives a representative sample of patients on hemodialysis three times a week. They found that

Inverness Dialysis Patient's Canoe Trip

2011-09-01T17:28:00.000+01:00

Martin MacRae doesn't think dialysis should tie him to a sick bed, so he has decided to show the freedom gained from his new portable dialysis machine and canoe the breadth of Scotland via the Caledonian Canal. He will be camping at a series of rest points during his six day trip and will have his dialysis each evening for three hours - in his tent! There are only two of these small units

AWAK testing a portable dialysis unit

2011-08-18T13:10:00.007+01:00

The Singapore company Awak Technologies Pte. Ltd. are currently testing a portable peritoneal dialysis unit. There have been many reports of such devices over the last two or three years, but this one looks a bit further along the road than most. The unit has a pump and battery which are connected to a dialysate pack. The video below gives an explanation of the devices (there will be a short

Questions about the safety of Epogen and doses given

2011-07-25T12:03:00.000+01:00

Epogen reduces the need for blood transfusions among dialysis patients, and counters the fatigue from long sessions. It's been in production since 1989. But according to this news report (22 July, 2011), new guidelines have questioned the safety of this and related drugs. According to the report at Vcstar.com, "the FDA finally announced on June 24 new guidelines that are projected to slash the

Diet that reversed kidney failure in diabetic mice

2011-06-24T16:55:00.000+01:00

We missed this report when it came out, but thought it worth including. A BBC News report covers some research where diabetic mice were fed a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate. And damage to the kidneys caused by too much sugar was reversed. The researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York used mice with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Once kidney damage had developed

Australian Problems with Dialysis

2011-06-22T11:05:00.001+01:00

Here we highlight two recent news articles about Australia, for a change. The first report claims that "kidney disease is rampant in the Northern Territories". The basis for this claim is new figures showing that end-stage kidney disease in NT is approximately three times that of the rest of Australia. The figures are due to the higher proportion of Aboriginal people living in that area, and

Vytorin Lowers Heart Disease Risk in Kidney Patients

2011-06-10T15:46:00.003+01:00

Vytorin, a drug used for lowering cholesterol levels, has been found to reduce the risk of heart disease among kidney patients by up to 25 percent, according to the results obtained by Oxford University research scientists who carried out the research on a group of 9,270 kidney disease patients, with the work starting in 2003. The measured improvement was 17% but many patients were not on the

Dialysis doesn't stop Ironman Triathelete

2011-05-25T19:31:00.000+01:00

Some people might imagine that if you are on dialysis you are some sort of a weak and fragile person. They obviously forgot to tell Shad Ireland this! He is taking part in the Amgen Tour of California, despite being on dialysis. His training included cycling in the snowy weather around Lake Tahoe, while everyone else was looking for excuses not to. Shad has launched a 24-month project called

Keryx says more European drug trials not necessary

2011-05-05T22:34:00.000+01:00

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals says that it does not believe that it will need to carry out more tests so that its kidney drug Zerenex (ferric citrate) will be approved in Europe. This was reported on several news sites. The drug is used to treat high phosphate levels (hyperphosphatemia) in patients with chronic kidney disease as well as those on dialysis. The drug is already licensed in many other

Find a Kidney Donor - using Facebook!

2011-04-23T12:33:00.001+01:00

I'm not the world's greatest fan of Facebook, but it does have its uses. It's claimed to bring together old friends and classmates, but in the case of Tim Magsby, who had been on dialysis for four years, it did a bit more than that! After four years worrying, with no close relatives suitable as a donor for a kidney, he turned in desperation to Facebook, and posted a video asking for help. Then

Taking Statin before Major Surgery can reduce your risk of kidney problems

2011-04-13T12:36:00.001+01:00

Many patients who undergo major elective surgery can develop kidney problems after surgery, due to decreased blood flow to the kidneys during the operation, or due to inflammation. In a research paper to be published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, researchers claim that taking a statin before surgery could protect the kidneys from being damaged. They examined the medical

Home Dialysis May Ease Restless Legs Syndome

2011-03-22T23:13:00.001Z

A recent report suggests that switching from treatment at a dialysis centre to treatment at home could be a solution to the lack of sleep problem encountered by some dialysis patients due to restless legs syndrome. If you suffer from pins and needles or creepy-crawly feelings in your legs, then you may be suffering from restless leg syndrome; and if you are a dialysis patient, then you are

Are Dialysis Patients X-rays a Risk?

2011-03-03T12:16:00.001Z

A recent report from Italian researchers suggests that regularly x-raying dialysis patients to monitor their health is itself a health risk. Marco Brambilla of Maggiore della Carità University Hospital in Novara, Italy said that the majority of routine x-rays to monitor a dialysis patients health gave no useful information. But the overall result for some patients was being exposed to the

One way to support your team!

2011-02-09T16:15:00.001Z

This story has appeared in literally hundreds of places, and I thought I might as well mention it too. Tom Walter is the baseball coach for Wake Forest. Wake Forest signed new hopeful Kevin Jordan last year - nothing unusual so far. Two months after this Jordan developed a serious kidney problem, which resulted in him needing regular dialysis. Jordan learned last April that he had ANCA

Home dialysis viable following kidney transplant failure

2011-01-18T20:37:00.001Z

Reported in DailyHealthReport, and many other sites. Many patients who have a transplant end up returning to dialysis. The statistics show that there is very little survivability differences for such patients when using home dialysis compared to using hospital dialysis. There have been many studies on the survivability rate for the two treatments, and all report this same result. But, according