One of the biggest challenges is identifying kidney disease in the early and middle stages, says Prabir Roy-Chaudhury. He works to emphasize the importance of simple blood and urine tests for high-risk populations for earlier diagnosis, but also strives for better treatment once kidney failure sets in.

He discusses

• Why his main interest is dialysis vascular access dysfunction,
• What are common issues, such as cardiovascular complications in kidney disease patients,
• How current tests like the GFR and albumin amounts are calculated and why they determine the kidney failure risk equation, and
• What should patients prioritize in treatment, from Vitamin D importance to new drugs and technologies.

Prabir Roy-Chaudhury is a professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension and co-director of UNC Kidney Center and specializes in uremic vascular biology.

He brings listeners online with the basics of kidney disease, who’s at risk, and what’s being done to make treatment better. We need our kidneys to rid our bodies of toxic byproducts and fluid, he says. If the kidneys can’t rid us of our byproducts, these uremic solutes accumulate in the blood and our systems suffer. That’s why doctors turn to other ways of filtrating these out of our bodies through dialysis.

That’s also where Dr. Roy-Chaudhury would like to see improvement. He explains both types of dialysis—hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis—describing their strengths and weaknesses. He adds that “my dream definitely would be for us to be in a slightly different place” with dialysis. He shares some good news towards that end: that the American Society of Nephrology has partnered with the FDA and Health and Human Services to produce public and private partnerships, such as the Kidney Health Initiative and the Kidney Innovation Accelerator, to improve these treatments.

Listen in to learn about these exciting projects that hope to dramatically change the quality of life for patients with kidney disease.

Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C