From PSUCollegio, by Haley Riebel
Chunkin’ Punkins
Pope, senior in social work, decided to organize “Punkin’ Chunkin,’” an a fundraiser in which she raised awareness of polycystic fidney disease while allowing people to dispose of unwanted Halloween leftovers in a more splattering way.
About 20 residents and students joined in Pittsburg’s first Punkin’ Chunkin’ on Sunday, Nov. 2. where the top chuck of the day was recorded at 24 feet.
“There were not as many people as we wanted…but she (Pope) got a lot of awareness out,” said Valerie Ashcraft, senior in social work, who brought her children to participate in the event. Ashcraft’s son received third place with a launch of 17 feet, 4 inches.
Punkin’ Chunkin’ Pittsburg began as a project for Pope’s field study. The state of Delaware hosts a world championship Punkin’ Chunkin’ each year and Pope chose to bring the event to Pittsburg to discard of old jack-o-lanterns and raise money for PKD research, a disease that hits closer to home for Pope as her husband and three of her siblings have all been diagnosed with it.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Delaware’s Punkin’ Chunkin’,” Pope said. “I’ve not gotten the chance so I made the best of my circumstances. As a social work student we are given opportunities to interact in environments we may encounter. This was my way of bringing an experience to SEK.”
PKD affects one in every 500 people, with most cases becoming present during childhood. Cases tend to gradually become worse when an individual with the disease reaches adulthood, as it spreads from the kidneys to other organs such as the liver. Children with one parent suffering from the disease have a 50 percent chance of getting it themselves.
Pope was not alone in her fight for awareness.
The catapult used during Punkin’ Chunkin was brought by a resident and other organizations. Including Home Depot, The Medical Lodge, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Chatter’s, Sweet Designs Cakery, TJ Belcher Insurance, Jock’s Nitch, and Mall Deli teamed up with Pope to organize the event and make supply donations.
Pope set a goal of raising $500 during the event, $90 of which was met through entry fees and concessions. [Read More]
From Pinterest
From MedScape, by Daniel M. Keller, PhD
PHILADELPHIA — When an all-time high of about 13,000 kidney professionals converge on Philadelphia for Kidney Week 2014, their biggest problem will be how to decide which lectures and sessions to attend. The meeting, running from November 11 to 16, will be rich with state-of-the-art basic and clinical science lectures, clinical nephrology conferences, high-impact trial results, and late-breaking presentations.
At least nine important clinical trials will be presented in an oral abstract session on Saturday. Two concern the HALT Progression of Polycystic Kidney Disease trial, which is testing whether interruption of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system can slow the loss of renal function in early-stage and moderately advanced disease. A presentation on the ADVANCE-ON follow-on trial will report on the long-term benefits of intensive glucose control for end-stage kidney disease.
The ACT-AKI phase 2 trial should begin to shed light on the potential for stem cell therapy. The trial tests mesenchymal stem cells as a potential treatment for acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery patients.
In addition to these oral presentations and hundreds of posters, more than a dozen late-breaking posters will give attendees a chance to chat with researchers about their work.
The theme of this year's meeting is Building New Paths to Kidney Health, because "nephrology is now almost facing a mid-life crisis" in light of the changing healthcare landscape and rapidly advancing science, said Sharon Moe, MD, from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, who is president of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN).
The prescription for moving forward is to take new roads in new directions, she told Medscape Medical News. One of those directions is to think in terms of health, rather than just treating disease.
Another is to bring society members up to speed on the latest science that will soon affect the practice of nephrology. A precourse called From Stem Cells to Function will explore stem cell transplantation to repair or even rebuild a kidney. There will be "lecturers from all over the world who are experts in this area, not necessarily just in kidney," Dr Moe said. Many of them will stay on to give more talks during the main meeting.
Pioneering Work
The 2-day stem cell course will "really cover every aspect, from what we know about stem cells in the kidney to how we can reprogram a skin cell to make a kidney in a patient," said Susan Quaggin, MD, from Northwestern University in Chicago, who is the ASN program committee chair. These issues have long-term implications for the problem of shortages of organs for transplantation and the amount of immunosuppression needed.
At least nine important clinical trials will be presented in an oral abstract session on Saturday. Two concern the HALT Progression of Polycystic Kidney Disease trial, which is testing whether interruption of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system can slow the loss of renal function in early-stage and moderately advanced disease. A presentation on the ADVANCE-ON follow-on trial will report on the long-term benefits of intensive glucose control for end-stage kidney disease.
The ACT-AKI phase 2 trial should begin to shed light on the potential for stem cell therapy. The trial tests mesenchymal stem cells as a potential treatment for acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery patients.
In addition to these oral presentations and hundreds of posters, more than a dozen late-breaking posters will give attendees a chance to chat with researchers about their work.
The theme of this year's meeting is Building New Paths to Kidney Health, because "nephrology is now almost facing a mid-life crisis" in light of the changing healthcare landscape and rapidly advancing science, said Sharon Moe, MD, from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, who is president of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN).
The prescription for moving forward is to take new roads in new directions, she told Medscape Medical News. One of those directions is to think in terms of health, rather than just treating disease.
Another is to bring society members up to speed on the latest science that will soon affect the practice of nephrology. A precourse called From Stem Cells to Function will explore stem cell transplantation to repair or even rebuild a kidney. There will be "lecturers from all over the world who are experts in this area, not necessarily just in kidney," Dr Moe said. Many of them will stay on to give more talks during the main meeting.
Pioneering Work
The 2-day stem cell course will "really cover every aspect, from what we know about stem cells in the kidney to how we can reprogram a skin cell to make a kidney in a patient," said Susan Quaggin, MD, from Northwestern University in Chicago, who is the ASN program committee chair. These issues have long-term implications for the problem of shortages of organs for transplantation and the amount of immunosuppression needed.
Living With PKD
THE PAPHOS hospital renal unit is finding it difficult to keep up with the demand for life-saving dialysis as new patients are registering virtually every month, it says.
The unit is to receive a new €25,000 state-of-the-art dialysis machine next week, the money for which was raised by the Paphos-based Cyprus Kidney Association (ex-pats) with a substantial donation of €7,000 from the Dashin Foundation.
At the moment the renal unit at the hospital has 11 dialysis machines in use, and one available for spares. All 11 machines are working to capacity, and are outdated.
The kidney association is currently in the process of raising money for a second state-of-the-art machine by the end of the year. Currently they have come up with around €9,000 towards the cost. Without dialysis kidney patients would invariably die within one week.
Dr Lakis Yioukkas who runs the Paphos renal unit, said the new machine was vital and it also gives a special type of dialysis “which is better for the patient as their blood will be clearer,” he said.
Yioukkas said close to 6,000 dialysis treatments were carried out at the facility last year and new machines were urgently needed.
“I currently have 53 patients needing dialysis. This has increased considerably from a few years ago where numbers were around 20,” he said.
The doctor said the main cause of renal failure was diabetes and this was now increasing dramatically on a global scale due to the lifestyle many people adopt.
“In Paphos, the second main cause is also hereditary,” said Yioukkas.
“Latest statistics show that at least 10 per cent of the population of Paphos suffers with some sort of kidney problems. If you say that the population of the district is 100,000; that’s 10,000 kidney patients,” he added.
According to the kidney association, the specific genetic disorder in Paphos could be traced back to villages in the Marathasa region about 400 years ago.
This genetic predisposition would cause 40 per cent of male patients with kidney disorder to end up on dialysis before they were 70.
Yioukkas said new patients presenting were of all ages, even as young as 40.
He said there were five stages of kidney failure and it was only at Stage 5 that dialysis or transplants were needed. Dialysis involves five hour stints three days a week.
“In the last 20 years we have also carried out 80 kidney transplants in Paphos and the number is increasing,” said the doctor. “People need to change their lifestyles, their diet and exercise more frequently.”
In general, according to studies, one in ten Cypriots, or 80,000 people will suffer from a kidney disorder in the foreseeable future, and Cypriots suffer nearly three times the European average for serious kidney complaints.
Graham Brown, 64, suffers from a hereditary condition-polycystic kidney disease- and he recently took over as the chairman of the Cyprus Kidney Association (ex-pats), which was set up in 2000 to raise funds for the renal unit.
He spoke to the Cyprus Mail while hooked up to a dialysis machine at the hospital. Following the removal of one of his kidneys, he started dialysis treatment in November last year.
Brown said that the latest machine is the most modern one on the market, complete with a touch screen. It is smaller and more reliable than machines currently in use at the unit, which sees the technician constantly having to repair one or other of them, he said.
“A technician is flying over from the manufacturers in Germany for four days to instruct all the nurses within the unit on the use of this ultra modern state of the art piece of equipment. The nurses are all really pleased and we are hoping that it makes their job easier.” [Read more]
At the moment the renal unit at the hospital has 11 dialysis machines in use, and one available for spares. All 11 machines are working to capacity, and are outdated.
The kidney association is currently in the process of raising money for a second state-of-the-art machine by the end of the year. Currently they have come up with around €9,000 towards the cost. Without dialysis kidney patients would invariably die within one week.
Dr Lakis Yioukkas who runs the Paphos renal unit, said the new machine was vital and it also gives a special type of dialysis “which is better for the patient as their blood will be clearer,” he said.
Yioukkas said close to 6,000 dialysis treatments were carried out at the facility last year and new machines were urgently needed.
“I currently have 53 patients needing dialysis. This has increased considerably from a few years ago where numbers were around 20,” he said.
The doctor said the main cause of renal failure was diabetes and this was now increasing dramatically on a global scale due to the lifestyle many people adopt.
“In Paphos, the second main cause is also hereditary,” said Yioukkas.
“Latest statistics show that at least 10 per cent of the population of Paphos suffers with some sort of kidney problems. If you say that the population of the district is 100,000; that’s 10,000 kidney patients,” he added.
According to the kidney association, the specific genetic disorder in Paphos could be traced back to villages in the Marathasa region about 400 years ago.
This genetic predisposition would cause 40 per cent of male patients with kidney disorder to end up on dialysis before they were 70.
Yioukkas said new patients presenting were of all ages, even as young as 40.
He said there were five stages of kidney failure and it was only at Stage 5 that dialysis or transplants were needed. Dialysis involves five hour stints three days a week.
“In the last 20 years we have also carried out 80 kidney transplants in Paphos and the number is increasing,” said the doctor. “People need to change their lifestyles, their diet and exercise more frequently.”
In general, according to studies, one in ten Cypriots, or 80,000 people will suffer from a kidney disorder in the foreseeable future, and Cypriots suffer nearly three times the European average for serious kidney complaints.
Graham Brown, 64, suffers from a hereditary condition-polycystic kidney disease- and he recently took over as the chairman of the Cyprus Kidney Association (ex-pats), which was set up in 2000 to raise funds for the renal unit.
He spoke to the Cyprus Mail while hooked up to a dialysis machine at the hospital. Following the removal of one of his kidneys, he started dialysis treatment in November last year.
Brown said that the latest machine is the most modern one on the market, complete with a touch screen. It is smaller and more reliable than machines currently in use at the unit, which sees the technician constantly having to repair one or other of them, he said.
“A technician is flying over from the manufacturers in Germany for four days to instruct all the nurses within the unit on the use of this ultra modern state of the art piece of equipment. The nurses are all really pleased and we are hoping that it makes their job easier.” [Read more]
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