Researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a possible link between kidney damage and subsequent heart problems. The complications that arise as a result of kidney damage affect the heart, which is the commonest cause of fatality in these patients.
The findings of the study will be published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Based on these findings, the researchers are hopeful that new treatment modalities will emerge to treat patients who suffer heart problems as a result of damage to their kidneys.
In the study conducted at the Washington University, researchers tracked the events, which occur following kidney damage in experimental mice. Dr. David Warnock, president of the National Kidney Foundation, described the results of the study as an important step towards understanding of the relationship between chronic kidney disease and heart disease.
The researchers found that kidney damage leads to increased levels of phosphorus in the blood. This phosphorus in turn causes a stiffening of the smooth muscles-a condition called as vascular calcification, which precedes hypertrophy or enlargement of one of the heart's four chambers and thereby increases the risk of heart failure and related complications.
Dr. Keith Hruska, senior investigator of the study said that these mice were then treated with a medication that supposedly reduces the levels of phosphorus. The mice that had a normal phosphorus level did show a drop in the signs of vascular calcification. "We already have treatments available that can control phosphorous levels in the blood, and those should be very helpful for kidney patients," he pointed out.
Dr. Keith Hruska is also credited with discovering that injections of bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) lead to a reduction in bone damage in kidney patients. Researchers and doctors alike are excited at these new developments and hope that they herald a new therapeutic approach to treating these conditions.
