Kidney Function

Eating fish twice a week can help reduce the risk of kidney disease in people with diabetes, according to a British study of more than 22,000 adults, including 517 diabetics.

Fish consumption of participants was determined through questionnaires about diet and lifestyle. People who had diabetes who ate less than one serving of fish a week had about four times more likely (18 percent) of protein present in urine compared with those who ate at least two servings of fish a week ( four percent).

“The protein in urine is an early sign of kidney disease,” noted co-author of the study, Dr Amanda Adler, of the epidemiology unit of the Council of Medical Research Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

The study appears in the November edition of the journal American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

Adler and colleagues suggested that the “unique nutritional composition of fish” could benefit renal function by increasing the control of blood glucose and improve lipid profiles in plasma.

People who consume fish may have other lifestyle factors that reduce your risk of protein in the urine, but the design of the study also tried to have that possibility in mind, said Adler.

“The diet is a change in lifestyle is relatively easy to do, and the benefits could be significant,” said Dr. Kerry Willis, senior vice president of scientific activities of the U.S. National Kidney Foundation, in a press release from the foundation.

In addition to eating fish, other measures to help reduce the risk of albuminuria include strict control of glucose, keeping blood pressure under control, quitting smoking, and follow a diabetic diet as prescribed by a doctor, according to the foundation kidney.

Calcific uremic arteriolopathy, or calciphylaxis, is a serious and life-threatening complication of end-stage renal disease. Its pathogenesis is not yet fully elucidated and treatment is controversial. In the presence of severe hyperparathyroidism, parathyroidectomy should be considered. We report a case of a woman on maintenance hemodialysis therapy with calciphylaxis and parathyroid adenoma who refused to undergo parathyroidectomy. She was treated successfully with a combination of noncalcium phosphate binders, cinacalcet, and paricalcitol. Subcutaneous plaques disappeared, and the necrotic lesion was healed. Discontinuation of paricalcitol led to an increase in serum parathyroid hormone levels and reappearance of the patient's symptoms, whereas its reintroduction resulted in complete remission of the clinical picture. Paricalcitol, a less calcemic vitamin D analogue, is also a selective vitamin D receptor activator with a number of nonclassic actions (such as inhibition of inflammation and ossification-calcification) that could prove beneficial in cases of calciphylaxis.