Kidney disease may have heritable factor

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Nov 1, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Wake Forest University scientists say nearly one-fourth of all kidney dialysis patients have a close relative on dialysis, suggesting a heritable factor.

The researchers at the university's Baptist Medical Center, and others, suggest screening such patients' relatives for undetected kidney disease.

The research was conducted by scientists from Wake Forest and Emory universities and the End-Stage Renal Disease Network 6, one of 18 such networks in the United States.

The largest study of its type ever performed, the research involved 25,883 newly treated dialysis patients from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Of those, 22.8 percent were found to have close family members also with end-stage kidney failure.

Dr. Barry Freedman, professor of internal medicine and head of the Baptist Medical Center's nephrology section, said, "Physicians caring for patients with chronic kidney disease should consider focusing screening efforts on high-risk family members in an attempt to slow the exponential growth rate of kidney failure."

The study was based on dialysis patients from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia and appears in the current online edition of the American Journal of Nephrology.

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