I spent most of last week at the ADC, which was in Seattle for the 50th anniversary of the first chronic dialysis treatments. Here are some interesting things I learned about HD:
– Dr. Belding Scribner (who started doing chronic HD) had a genetic eye condition called keratoconus and had 4 corneal transplants during his lifetime. Because of this, he decided to go into research instead of patient care. (The rest is history!)
– In Japan, 88% of women and 95% of men have fistulas for dialysis
– Dr. Rajiv Saran noted in a keynote address that slower blood flows = MORE FISTULAS. In countries (like Japan…) that do slower HD treatments, fistula rates are higher.
– Dr. Robert Lockridge said that a normal (healthy) GFR is 100-120. Standard in-center HD with a Kt/V of 1.1 = a GFR of 8. Even a Kt/V of 1.5 only means a GFR of 12–less than 10% of healthy.
– Dr. Chris Blagg reported that home hemo is coming to China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, and Taiwan.
– The NxStage Nocturnal HD study is done and off to the FDA
Thanks so much Dori for posting this summary. I am interested in Dr. Blagg’s piece about home hemo coming to India. Do you have any more info - maybe a link to the presentation or any data that he might have presented?
No, I don’t, Kamal, but if he gets back to me re: my request to get a copy of a video of a very early dialysis treatment (narrated by Scribner himself!) to post here, I can ask him.
Dr. Blagg says, “there is growing interest in providing home HD in a number of Asian countries including India, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan but this is just the early stages.”
