Washington DC [US], September 13 : Aarhus University researchers have come up with a new technique that may represent a major advancement in the treatment of chronic renal disease. The technique has the ability to forecast how the illness will evolve, which may guarantee more effective and individualised care and lessen the frequency of hospital stays.
A new technique has been developed by researchers at Aarhus University to identify individuals with chronic renal failure who are most likely to eventually lose their kidney function.
The technique is predicated on the examination of urine sample acid-base balances, which might identify early indicators of acid accumulation, a condition that may be detrimental to kidney function.
"We discovered that the balance between different acid-base elements in urine samples from patients with chronic kidney disease differs significantly from healthy individuals. This led us to develop a calculation model where the relationship between several of the urine's acid-base elements could be associated with kidney function and disease progression over time," explains Mads Vaarby Sorensen, PhD and researcher at the Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University.
The new method allows doctors to detect acid buildup earlier than is possible with current blood tests.
According to Mads Vaarby Sorensen, existing biomarkers can only measure acid buildup when it is severe enough to affect the blood's acid-base balance.
The new acid-base score can reveal imbalances in the urine much earlier in the process.
Another advantage of the new method is its precision.
"Our method has been tested in several independent cohorts and has proven to be very accurate, even when we analyze urine samples from the same patients over a longer period," explains Peder Berg, MD and postdoc at the Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University.
The method has the potential to change how patients with chronic kidney disease are monitored and treated.
It can distinguish between patients with stable kidney function and those who rapidly lose kidney function.
Chronic kidney disease affects more than ten percent of the adult population and places significant demands on healthcare resources.
"The new method could potentially reduce the need for frequent check-ups for stable patients and free up resources for those with more aggressive disease progression," says Samuel Svendsen, medical resident at the Department of Nephrology at Aarhus University Hospital.
The research group is already in dialogue with several international partners to expand their research in the field.
In the short term, the researchers hope to validate the method in up to 4,000 patients in collaboration with major European and American research centres.
In the long term, the researchers hope that the new method can help individualise the treatment of kidney disease.
"If we can predict acid buildup earlier, we can intervene with acid-reducing treatment earlier, which could potentially extend the time patients can avoid dialysis," explained Samuel Svendsen.
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