(Press-News.org) People with impaired kidney function are at a higher risk of future stroke than people with normal kidney function, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.
A second study, also published today, finds that even the earliest stages of chronic kidney disease are linked to a higher risk of coronary heart disease.
This study suggests that considering signs of early kidney disease, in addition to routinely measured risk factors such as blood pressure and blood cholesterol, modestly improves the identification of people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. It provides about half as much predictive gain as did history of diabetes or about a sixth as much as did history of smoking.
Doctors already know that chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease are linked. However, kidney disease often goes undiagnosed, because it is largely without symptoms, and the impact of kidney function on stroke is still unclear.
So, in the first study, researchers from Taiwan and the USA investigated the link between low glomerular filtration rate or GFR (the flow rate of fluid filtering through the kidneys) and risk of future stroke.
They analysed the results of 33 studies involving over 280,000 individuals and found that people with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of less than 60 ml/min/1.73m2 (the normal range is 100-130 ml/min/1.73m2) had a 43% greater risk of future stroke than people with a normal eGFR.
They also found that Asian people with a low eGFR were at higher risk of future stroke than their non-Asian counterparts.
Based on these findings, they conclude that a low eGFR should be seen as a marker for increased stroke risk, prompting doctors to start risk reduction strategies, such as blood pressure control and use of cholesterol lowering drugs, to avert future strokes, particularly in people of Asian race.
In the second study, UK and Icelandic researchers tracked 16,958 people living in Reykjavik over 24 years and found that even the earliest stages of chronic kidney disease were at increased risk of developing coronary heart disease.
They found that assessment of chronic kidney disease in addition to conventional risk factors modestly improved coronary heart disease risk prediction. It provided about half as much predictive gain as did history of diabetes or about a sixth as much as did history of smoking.
The researchers also found a suggestive association between chronic kidney disease and increased risk of death from causes other than cardiovascular disease or cancer, recommending the need for further studies to investigate this link in more detail.
These findings are supported in an accompanying editorial, which says that the presence of chronic kidney disease should act as a "red flag" that triggers cardiovascular risk assessment and implementation of appropriate preventive strategies already shown to be effective in the general population.
INFORMATION: END
A strategy to encourage single embryo transfer after in vitro fertilisation (IVF) could be an important tool to prevent multiple pregnancies and their associated complications, finds a study published on bmj.com today.
Deciding how many embryos should be transferred after IVF is a complex problem. The transfer of only one embryo will prevent a multiple pregnancy and the risk of complications for mother and baby, but could require more cycles to achieve pregnancy.
Although professionals and policy makers have launched initiatives to encourage the use of single embryo ...
Drug companies have not only sponsored the science of a new condition known as female sexual dysfunction, they have helped to construct it, in order to build global markets for new drugs, reveals an article in this week's BMJ.
Researching his new book 'Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals' Ray Moynihan, journalist and lecturer at the University of Newcastle in Australia, discovered that drug industry employees have worked with paid key opinion leaders to help develop the disease entity; they have run surveys to portray it as widespread; and they helped design diagnostic tools ...
Should athletes have to undergo mandatory electrocardiographic screening (also known as ECG or heart trace) before competing? Doctors debate the issue in this week's BMJ.
Antonio Pelliccia and Domenico Corrado argue that screening athletes for "silent" heart problems would save lives. They say the best evidence of the efficacy of ECG screening on mortality in athletes comes from Italy, the only country where it is required by law, and where a mass screening programme has been in place for almost 30 years.
The incidence of sudden deaths before and after implementation ...
Kathleen Alexander, associate professor of wildlife in Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment, has discovered a novel tuberculosis (TB) species in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, a group of pathogens that have adapted by using mammals as hosts. It has been nearly two decades since a new organism was identified in this group; the majority were discovered in the early and mid 20th century.
Tuberculosis is presently the leading cause of death from infectious disease, infecting more than a third of the world's population.
Alexander discovered ...
Therapeutic lentiviral vectors are emerging as vital tools for molecular medicine as evidenced by the growing number of clinical trials using these vector systems. From a basic research standpoint, lentiviral vectors are very intriguing substrates. On the one hand, the HIV-1 genome offers expanded cloning capacity and the capability to transduce nondividing cells such as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and neurons. However, concerns associated with the potential risk of generating replication competent lentiviral particles require the removal of significant portions ...
The unusual "knot" in the bright, narrow ribbon of neutral atoms emanating in from the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space appears to have "untied," according to a paper published online in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Researchers believe the ribbon, first revealed in maps produced by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, forms in response to interactions between interstellar space and the heliosphere, the protective bubble in which the Earth and other planets reside. Sensitive neutral atom detectors aboard IBEX produce ...
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in Athens, Georgia, have reported for the first time that several species of Aspergillus niger, or black aspergilli, are capable of infecting corn and peanuts as endophytes. The researchers also showed that, under laboratory conditions, these species produced mycotoxins.
Using a molecular procedure they developed, USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) research leader Charles Bacon, microbiologist Dorothy Hinton, and Edwin Palencia, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology of the University of Georgia in ...
MANHATTAN, KAN. -- Less academically promising students should not be discouraged from setting high educational goals, according to one Kansas State University professor's research.
Chardie Baird, K-State assistant professor of sociology, and John Reynolds, Florida State University professor of sociology, looked at the mental health consequences of shooting for the stars versus planning for the probable in their publication "Is There a Downside to Shooting for the Stars? Unrealized Educational Expectations and Symptoms of Depression."
Their research, published earlier ...
(Garrison, NY) Research ethics review committees often require all women of childbearing age who enroll in clinical trials to use contraceptives to protect against a developing fetus being exposed to potentially harmful drugs. A mandatory contraceptive policy is often imposed even when there is no evidence that a trial drug could harm a fetus or when women have no chance of becoming pregnancy. This requirement is excessive and can safely be relaxed in many cases, according to a report in IRB: Ethics & Human Research.
Policies on contraceptive use in research should reflect ...
Researchers of the University of Granada, in collaboration with the Centre for Sensory-Motor Interaction of the University of Aalborg, Denmark, and the University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, conducted a research on chronic impingement syndrome. The study revealed that excessive activation of specific neck and shoulder muscles during daily life or while playing sports –as swimming– is the cause of a high number of injury and shoulder
A Common Pain
The pattern of the pain originated in these muscles –sometimes in regions far from the shoulder– coincides with most of the symptoms ...
