A new test could identify individuals who are likely to
develop potentially deadly calcium deposits in their tissues and blood
vessels, a precursor to chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Heart
disease is the number one killer of patients with CKD and vascular
calcification is thought to play a major role in it. Such patients often
have abnormally high blood calcium levels due to their compromised
kidney function and the effects of commonly used medications.
Currently,
physicians have no tools to determine an individual’s calcification
risk, the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology reports.
Andreas
Pasch, from the University Hospital and University of Bern,
Inselspital, Switzerland, and colleagues who developed the pioneering
new assay, have found that both the blood of mice deficient in a protein
that inhibits calcification and the blood of CKD patients on dialysis
had a reduced ability to inhibit calcification. Blood from healthy
volunteers did not, according to a Bern statement.
“Our
test may identify patients at risk for the development of
calcification, may become an important tool for identifying and testing
calcification inhibitors, and may provide the basis for treatment
monitoring in patients who receive such inhibitors,” said Pasch, who
co-authored the study with Stefan Farese, Steffen Graber, Johanna Wald,
Walter Richtering, Jurgen Floege and Willi Jahnen-Dechent.
Keywords: chronic kidney disease, heart disease, calcium deposits, blood calcium levels, blood test
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