Advance warning for kidney sufferers

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Advance warning for kidney sufferers

Monday, November 16, 2009
Torbay Hospital has teamed up with regional medical researchers and found an 'early warning system' to help those suffering from the auto-immune disease, Lupus.
Researchers from the hospital and the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, are to patent a blood protein they have created for those suffering from Lupus who develop an irreversible form of kidney disease.
It could lead the way for earlier diagnoses for other auto-immune diseases. A similar method has been developed for early diagnosis tools for other conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr Nick Viner, a consultant rheumatologist at Torbay Hospital, was one of the supervisors for the PhD student who has been carrying out the research.
The study was funded by the Torbay Medical Research Fund, a charity dedicated to supporting local healthcare research and clinical trials, and by the Arthritis Research Campaign .
 Lupus is an inflammatory disease where the immune system is overactive. He said about 20 per cent of sufferers have kidney problems and in a quarter of cases it can result in renal failure if untreated, making it important to detect those at risk early.
Dr Viner said: "The test we have developed shows great promise in allowing the early identification of those Lupus patients who may go on to develop kidney inflammation.
"I am very pleased patients attending the clinic at Torbay Hospital have been able to contribute to the research by providing blood samples."
He said 80 patients attend the hospital's Lupus clinic and 12 have been involved in providing samples.
Dr Viner added: "Further trials are required and it will be at least two or three years before the test is routinely available."
A hospital spokesman said: "Patients with Lupus are difficult to diagnose for the disease.
"Sometimes it can take up to five years for a Lupus patient to be diagnosed correctly."
The hospital say those suffering from Lupus have a higher risk of heart and kidney disease.
When kidney problems are detected it is often irreversible, hence the need to perfect an 'early warning system'.