Patients who will need kidney dialysis can be identified by measuring levels of a specific hormone, a University of Colorado School of Medicine study found.
Researchers studied patients with advanced kidney disease and found that a hormone known as FGF-23, which regulates phosphorus levels in the body, increased as kidney function decreased. As kidneys fail, they are unable to exrete phosphorus, so as FGF-23 levels increase, the more likely a patient is to need dialysis, suffer a cardiac event, or die.
"This discovery allows us to predict at-risk patients before they require dialysis," lead investigator Dr. Michel Chonchol, an associate professor of medicine specializing in nephrology, told ScienceDaily. "This has provided us a critical marker to look for, a marker that could save lives.".
Until now, doctors relied on measuring phosphorus to determine phosphate balance in patients, since phosphorus levels shoot up prior to the patient needing dialysis. But before phosphorus levels jump, FGF-23 levels increase. Doctors will now be able to prescribe drugs that can lower the phosphorus level and the hormone level.
"That's critical because approximately 23 percent of patients on dialysis die in the first year," Chonchol said.
The study appeared Sept. 9 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Read it here: http://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/01/ASN.2010121224.
