Groundbreaking blood test predicts kidney disease FIVE YEARS BEFORE symptoms appear

A simple blood test may save millions of people before renal damage can occur

Kidney disease affects 3.9 million adults across America, resulting in the deaths of 47,112 people. While current blood tests are able to detect renal disease at the onset of symptoms, a new blood test can predict a patient's risk of developing chronic kidney disease as early as five years before damage occurs.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, two percent "of adults aged 18 and over had ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that they had ... kidney disease ... in the past 12 months."

The report added that "adults in poor families had higher percentages of ... kidney disease... than adults in families that were not poor," and the number of deaths "per 100,000 population" is 14.9.

With these statistics, diagnosing renal disease as early as possible can make the difference between life and death. According to WebMD, it is possible to live a healthy life with a single kidney, but should you lose or damage both kidneys you lose the ability to clean your blood of "excess fluid, maintain the balance of salt and minerals in your blood, and help regulate blood pressure."

With kidney disease, the body is unable to properly filter blood and "waste products and fluid can build up in the body, causing swelling in your ankles, vomiting, weakness, poor sleep, and shortness of breath."

WebMD specifies that if kidney disease is left untreated, the kidneys "may eventually stop functioning completely [and is] a serious --and potentially fatal--condition."

Luckily, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, there is now a test that could allow doctors to effectively treat patients before the disease develops. By testing blood for soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor, also called suPAR, doctors can possibly "predict the future development of chronic kidney disease in different populations," Dr. Howard Trachtman, a pediatric nephrologist at NYU Langone Medical Center said in a press release.

He added, "Blocking suPAR may prove to be comparable in its application to the use of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers which are among the few drugs approved for treatment of chronic kidney disease."

The kidney function of 2,292 people was recorded between 2003 and 2009 at the Emory Cardiovascular Biobank, with a mean age of 63 and 65 percent of men. Each participant was measured for suPAR and creatinine levels, which is an indication of kidney-function, and the beginning of the study as well as in each follow-up.

 The data indicated 40 percent of the participants had high suPAR and creatinine levels, that did not indicate CKD. However, researchers found they developed CKD during the next five years. Only 10 percent of the participants with low suPAR levels developed chronic kidney disease. 

Though suPAR levels can be a good indicator of developing CKD, researchers admit other factors need to be explored and will include a more diverse and a much larger group of patient to refine the test before it is allowed to be used.

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