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You will soon hear of a palm sized dialysis machine that promises to change the way kidney patients take dialysis. Wearable artificial kidneys too are on the anvil. The man who led the research on this machine, Victor Gura, reportedly received US FDA permission to take up human trials.
This is among many critical research projects that give hopes to millions of patients who require dialysis to make up for faulty kidneys, those bean shaped filters whose work is not appreciated much. Kidney functions each time your heart beats. It clears blood of impurities and keep the system healthy, doctors say.
Awareness levels in the country on kidney failure are not as high as that of diabetes or hypertension. But doctors warn that, people who are diagnosed with either of the two or both conditions are candidates for kidney failures.
Good news is there are several advances in the field, helping the doctors in providing better and efficient dialysis methods.
“There are some ongoing research projects that will help in improve quality of life for kidney failure patients. They are working on the usability of transplanting kidneys from animals. Research would also help increase ability of the body to accept transplanted kidneys,” K S Nayak, a city-based nephrologist, said.
Global meet
Kidney specialists from across the world will discuss latest developments at the Haemodialysis University (convention) for two days here, beginning March 1.
The International Society for Haemodialysis is organising the third edition. The first and second editions were held in the US and China.
“You must ask your doctor three questions. What’s your blood sugar level, what’s your BP numbers and what’s your cholesterol level. If you have these figures on the wrong side and find protein in urine, you must know that you are a future candidate for kidney failure,” a senior nephrologists attending the conference said.
Nayak said absence of universal health coverage for of kidney failure patients was the biggest challenge in India.
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