Nephrology News

Although researchers from Emory University found communication between hospitals and dialysis facilities to be “suboptimal,” patients viewed overall care coordination favorably, according to a study that included a one-time patient survey.

A multinational study illuminates the global impact of COVID-19 on transplantation, with an observed 31% drop in the number of solid organ transplants performed during the first wave of the pandemic compared with the previous year.

For children and adolescents initiating dialysis, lupus nephritis conferred a higher hospitalization risk, as well as a lower likelihood of transplantation, compared with other glomerular causes of end-stage kidney disease.

The kidney community needs to recognize the impact of dialysis on the environment, particularly its dependence on Earth’s limited fresh water, a speaker at the virtual Innovations in Dialysis: Expediting Advances Symposium said.

In a cohort of patients receiving in-center hemodialysis, researchers observed a high prevalence zinc intake below recommended values, which they found led to an increased risk for mortality in 12 months of follow-up.

The diagnostic criteria for chronic kidney disease that uses the standard estimated glomerular filtration rate threshold of 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 regardless of one’s age may lead to overdiagnosis, researchers wrote.

A study of patients with end-stage kidney disease and COVID-19 revealed those who were from historically underrepresented groups had more than double the mortality rate of their white counterparts.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a variety of changes in the nutritional care provided to patients receiving hemodialysis across the United States, according to results of a survey administered to 191 dialysis dieticians.

Patients with newly diagnosed cancer were more likely to develop kidney failure than a group of controls without cancer who exhibited similar characteristics in terms of age, sex, eGFR and the presence of diabetes or hypertension.

Although survey results from January 2021 showed 85% of patients on dialysis were willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a speaker said work is still needed to increase the vaccination rate, with physicians playing an essential role.