Tulane University Researchers Continue National Kidney Study

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine has received a five-year $3.4 million grant to continue its participation in the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study, a national effort to examine risk factors for kidney and cardiovascular disease.

The study, which was begun in 2003, is sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. The study follows approximately 3,600 individuals with chronic kidney disease at 13 sites across the U.S. for up to nine years.

Chronic kidney disease affects approximately 26.3 million American adults. Persons with chronic kidney disease have a high risk of developing life-threatening cardiovascular disease. In addition, those suffering chronic kidney disease can often progress to end-stage renal disease, which requires patients to receive dialysis or a kidney transplant.

The long-term study was established to examine the risk factors for the progress of chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease, in order to find opportunities to prevent and better treat both conditions. The study has successfully recruited and is following-up approximately 3,600 patients with chronic kidney disease. Of them, more than 400 individuals are from the New Orleans area.

Leading the study at Tulane is Jiang He, the Joseph S. Copes MD Chair in Epidemiology, professor of epidemiology and medicine, and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Tulane University"s of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Other key investigators at Tulane include Drs. Lee Hamm, Professor and Greenberg Chair of Medicine and Executive Vice Dean, Tulane University School of Medicine; Dr. Jing Chen, assistant professor of medicine; and Dr. Lydia Bazzano, assistant professor of epidemiology and clinical assistant professor of medicine.

Institutions participating in the study in addition to Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine include the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois and Kaiser Permanente.