IN THE NEWS- AGE and NEPHROSCLEROSIS

A cross sectional study in Annals of internal medicine recently reports the association of age and nephrosclerosis studying a very good population- the donors.
Over 1200 donors were looked at and core needle biopsies done at time of implantation and then medical records reviewed for risk assessment.
They found that the finding of nephrosclerosis was 2.7% in 18-29 years of age
16% for 30-39 and 28% for 40-49, 44% for 50-59, 58% for 60-69 and 73% for 70-77 years of age.
No other factors that are traditional risk factors for kidney disease had significance except age. So they conclude that kidney function and chronic kidney disease risk factors did not explain the strong association between age and their findings in these healthy adults.

A closer look at the study, Few things did predict the nephrosclerosis:- urinary albumin excretion, nocturnal blood pressure and treated hypertension.
Hence, urinary albumin is still a good predictor of kidney function
They speculate that nephrosclerosis may be in part of the underlying pathway by which increased urinary albumin excretion may predict the development of hypertension.
Another important point from this large study:- importance of nocturnal HTN and the non dippers and overall better control of the hypertensive disease.

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