New Biomarker Identified for Kidney Disease
A team of researchers has identified a protein in the blood—used to look for heart damage—that they say can offer an early indication of end-stage renal disease in patients with hypertension.
Investigators from the Mayo Clinic combined with the University of Mississippi Medical Center used blood samples to study 3,050 African-American and white patients enrolled in the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy (GENOA) study between June 1996 and August 2000. The authors examined baseline data from the patients and conducted follow-up assessments of death and end-stage kidney failure events nearly 10 to 12 years later.
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Overall, the researchers found that, at 10 years, those with an abnormal level of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) in the blood—which can be an early indicator of disease and accurately identify patients in need of intervention—had a high cumulative incidence of death totaling 47%, in comparison to those with a normal cTnT (7.3%). Additionally, the cumulative incidence of end-stage kidney failure was 27% among those with an abnormal level of cardiac troponin, in comparison to the 1.3% seen in those with normal cTnT.
“We are finding more markers to help us determine the true risk of end-stage kidney failure events,” says LaTonya Hickson, MD, a nephrology and hypertension physician at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the study.
“A test that is commonly used to diagnose a heart attack may also be helpful in identifying an individual who may develop kidney failure and require dialysis or transplant within the next 10 years,” says Hickson, adding that “right now, it’s not cost-efficient to test a troponin level in everyone in our practice.”
However, “as we continue to take care of more and more people that have multiple comorbidities, it may become a useful discriminator in this high-risk group of patients,” she says, noting that “more studies are needed to confirm these results and advance the science.”
—Mark McGraw
Reference:
Hickson L, Rule A, et al. Troponin T as a Predictor of End-Stage Renal Disease and All-Cause Death in African Americans and Whites From Hypertensive Families. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2015.