Kidney research, 2026-08-29
A large review found cholesterol drugs did not lower death rates in dialysis patients with heart artery disease
Today's findings focused on observational studies and reviews, not new trials. A large review found no benefit of statins for survival in dialysis patients with heart disease. Other items linked long-term PPI use and faster biological aging to worse outcomes, but could not prove cause and effect. Several studies had limited detail due to missing abstracts or were preprints awaiting peer review.
Kidney biopsy unveiled: multifactorial damage in immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, a case report
A doctor described two patients who developed serious kidney scarring after receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors — drugs like Keytruda or Opdivo used for cancer. The patients had...
Inflammatory and traditional risk factors associated with the progression of chronic kidney disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
In 601 people with rheumatoid arthritis, both inflammation from the disease and traditional risk factors like high blood pressure were linked to faster kidney decline. Because this...
Salivary hormones and adipokines are associated with glycemic control and early renal and cardiometabolic markers in children and young adults with type 1 diabetes.
In 349 children and young adults with type 1 diabetes, levels of certain hormones in saliva were linked to blood sugar control and early signs of kidney or heart problems. Because...
Uremic Serum Alters Gene Expression Profiles and Signaling Pathway Activity in Porcine Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells
In pig artery cells in the test tube, blood from people with end-stage kidney disease changed which genes were active and how signaling pathways worked—this suggests uremic toxins...
Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitor Roflumilast Ameliorates Polytrauma-Induced Acute Kidney Injury by Attenuating HMGB1 and Renal Inflammatory Pathways in Rats
In rats with multiple injuries, a drug called roflumilast lowered kidney inflammation and helped protect the kidneys by blocking a protein called HMGB1. This was tested only in...
Recombinant zoster vaccine and risk of kidney failure, cardiovascular, and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease.
A study of over 13,000 adults with newly diagnosed chronic kidney disease found that those who received the shingles vaccine had lower rates of kidney failure, heart problems, and...
Efficacy and safety of SP16 in preventing acute kidney injury in at-risk subjects with chronic kidney disease undergoing elective cardiac surgery using the heart-lung-machine (EASE-AKI): study protocol for a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
A new trial is starting to test a drug called SP16 in people with kidney disease who are having planned heart surgery. Heart surgery on a heart-lung machine often injures the...
Higher eGFRdiff is associated with increased risk of rapid kidney function decline in hypertensive individuals
In people with high blood pressure, a bigger gap between two blood tests of kidney filtering rate (eGFR) went with faster loss of kidney function later. The two tests measure...
The relationship between urinary MMP-9, proteinuria, and pulse wave velocity in patients with diabetic kidney disease: a cross-sectional study
In people with kidney disease caused by diabetes, higher levels of a protein called MMP-9 in the urine went along with more protein in the urine and stiffer arteries. Artery...
Right Ventricular Dysfunction Across Chronic Kidney Disease Stages: An Echocardiographic Cross-Sectional Study
Heart ultrasound scans found weaker function in the right side of the heart in people with kidney disease, and it looked worse at later kidney stages. The right side of the heart...
New insights into diagnostic values and mechanisms of ferroptosis associated with immune infiltration in diabetic kidney disease
Researchers studied ferroptosis, a kind of cell death driven by iron, in kidney disease caused by diabetes. They point to genes tied to that process and to immune cells in the...
Publisher Correction: Impact of proteinuria levels on long-term kidney outcomes in IgA nephropathy: a meta-analysis
This meta-analysis combined data from many studies and found that higher levels of protein in the urine strongly predicted worse long-term kidney outcomes for people with IgA...
Combined Targeted Drug Delivery Systems for Mineral Metabolism Disorders in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Narrative Review.
This review looks at how kidney disease links mineral problems in bones and blood vessels — treating one often harms the other, a problem called the calcium paradox. It suggests...
Vancomycin-associated acute kidney injury in patients with moderate CKD: a multicentre retrospective cohort study.
In a study of over 1,200 people with moderate kidney disease, the antibiotic vancomycin caused sudden kidney injury in about 18% of patients. This shows a strong link between the...
Targeting Inflammation in CKD-Related Anemia: The Emerging Role of Lactoferrin as an Adjunctive Therapy
This is a review article arguing that lactoferrin, a protein found in milk, might help with the low blood counts (anemia) that come with kidney disease, by calming inflammation. It...
Hyperglycemia and alteration in sphingolipids are early mediators of diabetic kidney disease: role of elongase 1 (Elovl1)
Researchers found that high blood sugar changes certain fats called sphingolipids in the kidney, and that an enzyme named Elovl1 drives part of this. They point to it as one of the...
Impact of renal function on the safety of biologic and synthetic DMARDs in rheumatoid arthritis
This looked at whether rheumatoid arthritis drugs, both the newer biologic kind and older synthetic pills, are safe when kidney function is reduced. Kidney function affects how...
Association Between Long-Term Proton Pump Inhibitor Use and Decline in estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate among Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease
This study looked at people with chronic kidney disease who took proton pump inhibitors, the common stomach acid drugs like omeprazole, for a long time. It checked whether their...
Factors associated with all-cause mortality among patients initiating maintenance hemodialysis
This study followed people who were just starting regular dialysis and looked at what made death from any cause more likely. Findings like these help doctors spot who needs closer...
In-Hospital Empagliflozin Therapy for Congestion Relief and Renal Function in Patients with Acute Decompensated Heart Failure: A Structured Review
A review of using empagliflozin, an SGLT2 diabetes drug that also protects kidneys, in hospital for people with sudden worsening heart failure. It looks at whether the drug clears...
Prevention and Management of Carboplatin Nephrotoxicity
A review of how to prevent and handle kidney damage caused by carboplatin, a common chemotherapy drug. It gathers current practice on dosing, fluids, and monitoring to protect the...
Associations of biological aging and biological age acceleration with mortality in patients with cardiorenal syndrome: A prospective cohort study.
People with heart-kidney syndrome who showed signs of faster biological aging — measured by how much their body age exceeded their real age — were more likely to die during the...
Association of the Chinese visceral adiposity index with incident cardiovascular disease in cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome stages 0–3: a nationwide prospective cohort study
Researchers followed a large national group of adults in China who had early heart, kidney and metabolic problems. People who scored higher on a measure of fat around the organs...
Bushen Jianpi Qingchang Formula Ameliorates Colitis in Rats by Regulating Bile Acid Metabolism and Gut Microbiota.
A traditional Chinese herbal formula reduced gut inflammation in rats by changing bile acids and gut bacteria. This was not tested in people, so it is too early to know if it helps...
The Role of SGLT2 Inhibitors in the Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes: A Narrative Review of Current Evidence.
SGLT2 inhibitors — drugs like canagliflozin that lower blood sugar by making the kidneys flush out extra glucose — helped delay type 2 diabetes in people with prediabetes, but the...
Alterations in gut microbiota among maintenance hemodialysis patients with CKD-associated pruritus: a cross-sectional comparative study of two cohorts
Researchers compared the gut bacteria of people on regular dialysis who have bad itching with those who do not. Severe itching is common in kidney failure and is hard to treat....
Multidimensional sleep health and its association with fatigue among patients undergoing hemodialysis in China.
Among hemodialysis patients in China, better sleep health—covering things like sleep duration, quality, and daytime alertness—was linked to less fatigue. Because this is a snapshot...
The correlation between depression and haemodialysis adequacy in chronic kidney disease patients in South Africa
In 210 South African dialysis patients, those with depression scores in the highest range had lower dialysis adequacy (measured by Kt/V), but because this is observational, it...
Albumin redox status in the context of kidney transplantation - an observational, pilot study.
This small observational study measured a marker of oxidative stress called albumin redox status before and after kidney transplantation in 12 people. It found that albumin...
Artificial Intelligence–Enabled Diagnostics and Biomarker Discovery in Nephropathies
A review of how artificial intelligence is being used to diagnose kidney disease and to hunt for biomarkers, the blood or urine signals that flag damage early. It describes tools...
Early postoperative renal function is associated with long-term outcomes in living kidney donors
People who donate a kidney lose some filtering power right away. This study checked whether how well the remaining kidney works in the first days after surgery predicts their...
miRNA levels are associated with functional physical capacity and inflammation in patients with end-stage kidney disease
In 186 people on dialysis, certain microRNA levels in blood were linked to physical strength and inflammation markers—higher inflammation tied to lower physical ability—but because...
Finerenone in diabetic kidney disease: Findings from a single-center retrospective observational study
This study looked back at 120 people with diabetic kidney disease and found those who took finerenone had slower decline in their kidney filtering rate (eGFR), but because it is...
Etelcalcetide Versus Cinacalcet for Secondary Hyperparathyroidism in Hemodialysis Patients: A Multicentre Comparison with 24 Months of Follow-Up
This study compared two drugs for overactive parathyroid glands in 1,240 people on dialysis over two years. The newer drug (etelcalcetide) lowered calcium and phosphorus slightly...
ESC Guidelines on prevention and rehabilitation in coronary heart disease and current practice: the EUROASPIRE VI survey.
This observational study followed over 160 hospitals in 27 European countries from September 2024 to February 2026 and found big differences in how well heart disease patients...
Long-term evaluation of kidney biopsy outcomes to guide continuous quality improvement
Doctors reviewed years of their own kidney biopsy results to find ways to do the procedure better. A kidney biopsy takes a tiny piece of the kidney to find out what is wrong with...
2026 ESC Guidelines for the management of cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, in collaboration with the European Renal Association (ERA)
The 2026 European guidelines tell doctors how to treat heart disease and chronic kidney disease together, using the best available evidence. They cover blood pressure control,...
Implementation of a Laboratory-Integrated Clinical Decision Support System for CKD Screening and Progression Detection in Primary Care
A family medicine system built alerts into its lab software to flag patients whose kidney filtering rate (eGFR) or protein in the urine suggested kidney disease or worsening. The...
Survival Outcomes and Risk Factors in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Kidney Replacement Therapy in Brazil: A Retrospective Cohort Study
This study followed children in Brazil who needed dialysis or a transplant, and looked at how long they survived and what raised their risk. It is observational and looks backward...
From Locked Out to Opting in: How the Cures Act Reshaped Medicare Advantage Utilization for Beneficiaries With End‐Stage Kidney Disease
A US law change let people with kidney failure sign up for Medicare Advantage plans, which was blocked before. This study tracked how their use of care changed after the rules...