“Biomarkers” are fundamental to the science and art of medicine. Examples of biomarkers include blood pressure readings; cholesterol measurements; hemoglobin A1C; electrocardiograms. Doctors order tests – or biomarkers – to learn something about their patients that they did not know before ordering the test.
In the field of nephrology, acute and chronic kidney diseases are diagnosed and monitored using blood tests such as creatinine and urine tests such as albumin. These tests are the same tests used fifty years ago by nephrologists. There have been substantial advances in our understanding of the genetics and pathophysiology of kidney disease. Much of our research involves efforts to modernize the diagnostic approach to acute and chronic kidney disease using novel biomarkers.
SELECTED PAPERS FROM OUR RESEARCH INCLUDE:
- Urine Kidney Injury Biomarkers and Risks of Cardiovascular Disease Events and All-Cause Death: The CRIC Study.
- Fibroblast Growth Factor 23 Levels Associate with AKI and Death in Critical Illness.
- Urine biomarkers of tubular injury do not improve on the clinical model predicting chronic kidney disease progression.
- ADAM17 substrate release in proximal tubule drives kidney fibrosis.
- Fibroblast growth factor 23 levels are elevated and associated with severe AKI and death following cardiac surgery.
- Relationship of proximal tubular injury to CKD as assessed by urinary kidney injury molecule-1 in five cohort studies
- Detection of Drug-Induced Acute Kidney Injury in Humans Using Urinary KIM-1, miR-21, -200c, and -423.
- The usefulness of diagnostic testing in the initial evaluation of chronic kidney disease.
- Increased plasma catalytic iron in patients may mediate acute kidney injury and death following cardiac surgery
- Association of urinary KIM-1, L-FABP, NAG and NGAL with incident ESRD and mortality in American Indians with type 2 DM
- Blood kidney injury molecule-1 is a biomarker of AKI and CKD and predicts progression to ESRD in type I diabetes
- Imperfect gold standards for biomarker evaluation
For more information:
- Report on diagnostic errors: Improving Diagnosis in Health Care | IOM Report in Brief article
- CKD biocon: CKD Biomarkers Consortium Overview
- Kidney disease biomarkers publication: Biomarkers in nephrology: Core Curriculum 2013 | AJKD article
