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By Ava Zardynezhad, November 22, 2018 –
A team of researchers at the University of Calgary recently discovered a series of renal pathways through which contrast dyes are absorbed, sometimes leading to kidney damage in individuals. Contrast dyes are often used in medical procedures such as angiography.
Contrast agents are used to help identify important areas of surrounding tissue. In the case of Sam Hannon, he was used to distinguish his blood vessels for an angiogram after a heart attack. Hannon is "a human example of the disease that we modeled in mice," explained Daniel Muruve, a kidney specialist and a member of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Disease at the Cumming School of Medicine.
"When people are dehydrated, the dye accumulates in the kidneys and plays a role in promoting kidney damage," said Muruve.
However, the dye also induces an inflammatory response when it is absorbed into dehydrated kidney tissues by various routes, contributing to kidney damage. The team was able to visualize the evolution of dye in mouse kidney tissue in real time using specialized microscopes. The team detected some of the same markers in a study involving human urine samples in patients exposed to contrast dyes.
"What's interesting in this article is that we were able to visualize in the kidney things that were supposed to be true for many years," said Muruve. "I think what has been great in this research is that we have finally confirmed what many of us believed in seeing it happen.
According to Muruve, approximately 10% of patients undergoing contrast dye interventions are at high risk for acute kidney injury.
"People at risk are those who have diabetes or chronic kidney disease," he added.
Fortunately, this form of acute kidney injury is almost completely preventable with good hydration. But for patients with heart or kidney failure, as well as in emergency cases, immediate hydration is not a viable option.
The good news? This research has shown that a drug intervention is a possible treatment for patients who can not undergo immediate hydration, according to Muruve.
Other members of the Cumming School of Medicine, as well as the Snyder Institute for Chronic Disease also played a role in this project. Matthew James is one of those researchers whose work focuses on medicine and community health sciences. Bryan Ma, a third-year bioscience student at the University of Calgary and a former student collaborator at James's lab, shared his laboratory work experience as a summer student and his views on the importance of this research and development. precision medicine.
According to Ma, her interest lies in "the idea of precision medicine for individual groups, in order to maximize the health care of each individual". He is a strong supporter of this project because he believes that the consequences of this preventable health problem are heavy.
"The associated cost [with this health issue] is really high for the Alberta health system, "said Ma.[The cost] is also very common among people who go through this, because many of them will suffer from mild kidney damage, some will switch to dialysis ", which he describes as a process that takes time and 'money.
Ma thinks this research can be implemented in other parts of the health system. He envisions a future by taking similar ideas of precision medicine with electronic tools and integrating them into other areas of clinical medicine. He also hopes that this research can be used to convey important information to doctors more
effectively.
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