{"id":940,"date":"2015-11-23T13:06:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T21:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/\/dev\/?p=940"},"modified":"2015-11-23T13:06:31","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T21:06:31","slug":"breakthroughs-from-the-2015-asn-conference-kidney-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/breakthroughs-from-the-2015-asn-conference-kidney-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakthroughs from the 2015 ASN Conference: KIDNEY WEEK"},"content":{"rendered":"

nephrology:<\/em>\u00a0the branch of medical science that deals with the kidney.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The field of nephrology has always fascinated me, and this year an\u00a0urge pulled me to the San Diego Convention Center, to attend the ASN\u00a0<\/span>American Society of Nephrology<\/a>\u00a0conference.\u00a0 Held once a year, this conference draws around 11,000 people from 130 different countries around the world,\u00a0hoping\u00a0to learn\u00a0more\u00a0about this remarkable organ that contains more than a billion complex cells.\u00a0 The kidney is a puzzle we have yet to solve.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI became a nephrologist for exactly that reason. No matter which organ is failing, I have the fascinating task of assembling all of the puzzle pieces together to figure out\u00a0the why.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 A patient walks into my exam room with complaint A, I want to know how it ails them, and how we can resolve it. Or the very least learn to live with it.\u00a0 Kidneys regulate our body water, remove waste, produce hormones, govern electrolytes and most importantly the acidity of blood. The kidney must not be overlooked when surveying human health and disease.
\nI was called to consult on a case of a 95 year old woman with kidney disease and fluid disturbance.\u00a0 After my initial examination and blood work, I realized she had developed a case of acute interstitial nephritis, an allergic reaction within the kidneys commonly caused by drugs.\u00a0 I dug deeper, asking her family members and doctors the timing when all this began.\u00a0 The culprit was furosemide, a common diuretic.\u00a0 The\u00a0inflammation in her kidneys was so severe, she did not respond at all to the steroids I gave her.\u00a0 In fact, the electrolytes became more deranged.\u00a0 We were left with no choice, but dialysis.\u00a0 A risky endeavor, most definitely, but lucky for her one that proved fruitful. \u00a0Her skyrocketing blood pressure was gently brought down from 220 mmHg to 140 mmHg, and she felt sudden relief.\u00a0 The field of nephrology has fortuitously evolved whereby a 95 year old can be dialyzed safely and effectively, a feat that was unheard of a decade ago when I was a fellow.
\nDespite these innovative procedures, one of the most surprising things that I discovered at the ASN, is that resident physicians are not choosing to go into this field as much as they were even three years ago. Before 2013, eager candidates were banging down our doors for the opportunity to be a part of one of the most sought after subspecialties in internal medicine. Suddenly, the rates of nephrology fellows dropped dramatically deserting many promising spots in programs throughout the country.\u00a0 We all wondered why.\u00a0 Was it the change in the job market?\u00a0 The aftershock of Obamacare or the bundling of payments to large scale organizations, like dialysis centers?\u00a0 Was it all about the money?\u00a0 Whatever the case may be, after the conference I found myself just as fascinated by this field as ever before.\u00a0 It gave me the comforting notion that the physicians who are drawn to the enigma of the kidney, will find their way to the field of nephrology. Here are some of my favorite pearls from this year\u2019s ASN.<\/p>\n

TOP FIVE IMPORTANT NEW DISCOVERIES IN THE FIELD OF KIDNEY HEALTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Markers of diabetes in chronic kidney disease (CKD) or dialysis patients has been inaccurate all along.\u00a0 For decades we\u2019ve been measuring Ha1c, or glycosylated hemoglobin to learn about the degree of hyperglycemia in a diabetic patient with CKD.\u00a0 Now we believe a test called\u00a0 glycosylated albumin or frustosamine,\u00a0 can be more sensitive markers in this disease population.<\/li>\n
  2. Despite what has been formally known, lowering blood pressure with a multitude of medications does not lead to better health outcomes in older individuals or in pregnant women. Those 65 and older should especially be concerned about complications of drugs because their kidneys function with diminished speed and flexibility.<\/li>\n
  3. Jardiance, a new diabetic medication taken once daily, lowers cardiovascular mortality by many folds.\u00a0 The Food and Drug Administration stopped the study early in order to hasten the product\u2019s emergence into the market.\u00a0 I\u2019ve decided to wait a few more months to observe the medical community\u2019s experience with this drug before prescribing it.<\/li>\n
  4. The Young Investigator Award went to Dr. Janos Peti-Peterdi from USC, for real-time imaging of the kidney under fluctuating mediums, taking us to a deeper level of understanding of this\u00a0 complex puzzle within a puzzle. \u00a0 He showed us how kidney stem cells differentiate into their destined cell types, as a response to the changing medium of blood: salty, sugary, proteinaceous, acidic, etc. The cells then adapt to their environment by listening and signaling each other through various hormones.\u00a0 Check out his amazing research\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  5. The Human Kidney on a Chip. Harvard scholar, Dr. Ingber, Founding Director of\u00a0Wyss Institute<\/a>\u00a0designed a biologically active microchip that breeds individual colonies of human progenitor cells to actual organs. We can then examine the effects both good and bad of many substances on our kidneys, hearts and lung without the inhumane use of laboratory animals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Click here<\/a> to view the Nephrology page at Seaside Medical!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    nephrology:\u00a0the branch of medical science that deals with the kidney. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The field of nephrology has always fascinated me, and this year an\u00a0urge pulled me to the San Diego Convention Center, to attend the ASN\u00a0American Society of Nephrology\u00a0conference.\u00a0 Held once a year, this conference draws around 11,000 people from 130 different countries around the world,\u00a0hoping\u00a0to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"2015 ASN Conference: Kidney Information","_seopress_titles_desc":"Read through this blog that includes information regarding nephrology, and more in the field of kidney health. Visit Seaside Medical for more info!","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,77,78,79,80,81,82,20],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-asn","tag-gut-dysbiosis","tag-hormones","tag-kidney-week","tag-menopause","tag-nephrology-fellowship","tag-preventative-nephrology","tag-testosterone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seasidemedicalpractice.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}