VITAL SIGNS: AT RISK; Doctors Issue Alert to Dialysis Patients' Families
By Eric Nagourney
Published: November 8, 2005
People who are on dialysis are much more likely than those who aren't to have close family members who are also suffering from kidney disease, often without any symptoms, a new study finds.
The researchers, writing in the current American Journal of Nephrology, suggested that if doctors treating dialysis patients began screening their high-risk relatives, many other cases of kidney disease could be slowed or prevented. The study was led by Dr. Barry I. Freedman of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
The findings were based on a review of more than 25,000 patients in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The researchers found that about 23 percent of the patients had relatives with end-stage kidney disease. ''Far more are likely to have relatives with clinically silent'' kidney problems that can lead to serious illness, they wrote.
Patients whose kidney problems were related to diabetes were the most likely to have relatives with kidney problems.
The study also found that family members of people with chronic kidney disease were more likely to have high blood pressure and diabetes.
Some of the problems can be detected fairly easily in their early stages with blood or urine tests. End-stage kidney disease, the researchers said, is on the rise, and it has a significant effect on public health.
Drawing (Illustrations by Stuart Goldenberg)