Medicinal calcium said to treat kidney failure

An estimated 20 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD). In people with CKD, kidneys cannot effectively filter the toxins from the blood, which can lead to kidney failure.

In the Philippines, kidney disease is now one of the top 10 causes of death. Every year, almost 10,000 Filipinos go into kidney failure, requiring either dialysis for life or a kidney transplant for survival.

About 50 to 55 percent of Filipinos with diabetes develop kidney disease. According to the Philippine Society of Nephrology (PSN), diabetes is the single most common cause of kidney failure, with 31 percent of the 4,409 patients who underwent hemodialysis having diabetes mellitues nephropathy, a primary renal disease. Worse, the number of Filipinos with the most advanced form of kidney disease has risen to 31 percent in 2003 from 26 percent in 2001.

Kidney disease is classified as either acute, when loss of function occurs suddenly, or chronic, when deterioration takes place gradually, perhaps over a period of years. The chronic form may not show any symptoms until considerable, often irreparable damage has been done.

The causes of chronic kidney disease are often difficult to pinpoint. Most are the result of another disease or condition, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries -all of which impede the flow of blood inside the kidneys.

People with elevated total cholesterol and high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol or "bad" cholesterol are often at an increased risk of developing kidney dysfunction.

Recently, data analysis on nearly 8,000 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and elevated cholesterol who experienced improved kidney function was presented at the 55th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology and published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. These patients from the Treating to New Targets (TNT) trial took the cholesterol-lowering medicine atorvastatin calcium and experienced improved kidney function. Improvements were significantly greater among patients taking the highest does (80mg) of atorvastatin calcium.

"We anticipated that atorvastatin might provide a protective effect and slow the typical decline in kidney function in this patient population, but we didn't expect to see this level of improvement," said Dr. James Shepherd, TNT steering committee member and clinical academic consultant, Department of Pathological Biochemistry, University of Glasgow Medical School.

TNT was an investigator-led trial coordinated by an independent steering committee and funded by the medicine's manufacturing company. The study enrolled men and women between 35 and 75 years of age in 14 countries.

Atorvastatin calcium is the most prescribed cholesterol-lowering therapy in the world, with nearly 107 million patient-years of experience. It is used, in patients with multiple risk factors for heart disease such as family history, high blood pressure, age, low levels of good cholesterol, or smoking, to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke and, along with a low-fat diet, to lower cholesterol. It is also used in patients with type 2 diabetes and one other risk factor such as high blood pressure, smoking, or other complications of diabetes, including eye disease and protein in urine, in order to reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.

Atorvastatin calcium is a prescription medicine. Patients are encouraged to seek medical advice before taking any prescription medicine. It is not for those with liver problems and for women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. Patients who take the medicine should tell their doctor about any unusual muscle pain or weakness because this could be a side effect of the medicine along with other common mild reactions such as gas, constipation, stomach pain and heartburn which generally tend to go away. - Contributed story from Pfizer