Those who suffer from kidney disease know that it’s a pretty easily diagnosable thing.
However, new research has found that testing blood for a soluble urokinase-type plasminogen receptor, or suPAR, can predict a patient’s risk of kidney disease.
Researchers found that testing this receptor can predict kidney disease as early as five years in advance of any damage done by the condition.
Researchers in the study compare this discovery to discovering the role that testing cholesterol plays in detecting the risk of cardiovascular disease. This is especially true since CKD is more widespread than we realize: 15 percent of people in the United States suffer from it, and it causes about 47,000 deaths every year.
Most people don’t know that they have the disease, at least not until it’s advanced. Kidney disease usually isn’t even seen until it’s severe. Symptoms of severe kidney disease include blood in the urine, swollen hands and feet, and excessive thirst.
Until now, doctors only had methods of monitoring the disease, through measuring creatinine levels in the blood and protein levels in urine.
Dr. Howard Trachtman, a pediatric nephrologist at NYU Langone Medical Center, said, “The observation that high suPAR levels predict the future development of chronic kidney disease in different populations suggests this molecule may be a target for treatment to improve clinical outcomes in the majority of patients at risk for future kidney disease.”
This is an amazing discovery, but researchers say the job isn’t done. They want to show other risk factors, and research with a larger group than 2,300 patients.
