AAKP News of the
Month: Order Your Artwork Greeting Cards!
AAKP is proud to announce the winners of the 2010 AAKP Artwork Contest. The winners are:
1st place-Nellie Ferrante (dialysis patient)
2nd place-Melody Kirby (caregiver and transplant donor)
3rd place-Mary Mitchell (dialysis patient)
Visit the AAKP website to view the winners. The selected pieces of artwork are available as all-occasion greeting cards. Cards come in packs of 12 and are $20 per pack. To order, call AAKP at (800)749-2257 or send an email to info@aakp.org. | |
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| Take Charge of Your Healthcare with
My Health™ |  |
AAKP My Health™ now offers new features to help users take charge of their health care. Users can now:
· Receive appointment reminders by email
· Print emergency contact cards AAKP My Health™ is a free, unique section of the AAKP website, www.aakp.org, that provides you with online tools to be the leader in your healthcare. With AAKP My Health™, you can:
· Track your lab results
· Log your medications
· List your healthcare team members
· Prepare information for doctor visits
· Test your kidney knowledge
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| Preparing for Natural Disasters and Other Emergencies |
Sometimes natural disasters occur with no warning. In the wake of public health threats and emergencies like hurricanes, tsunamis, blizzards, tornadoes, acts of terrorism, and the threat of pandemic influenza, we are all starting to understand that being prepared for any type of emergency is important. One step you can take is to create your own
- First aid kit which includes your medications and a backup power source for medical equipment.
- List of emergency contacts
- Battery-powered radio, flashlight and extra batteries
- Manual can-opener
- Extra dry clothing
- NOAA weather radio
- Fire extinguisher
- Small tool kit
- Food for your animals
For more information on emergency preparedness, visit the Kidney Community Emergency Response website at www.kcercoalition.com. |
| Popular Heart Drug May Be Unsafe for Some Kidney Patients |
For patients with kidney disease on dialysis, the widely used heart medication digoxin may lead to an increased risk of premature death, according to a study appearing in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The researchers monitored more than 120,000 dialysis patients from over 1,800 clinics across North America for up to four years.
The risk of death was 28 percent higher for dialysis patients taking digoxin, after adjustment for other factors. The increase in risk was greater for patients with higher levels of digoxin in their blood and in patients who had lower serum potassium levels. Over 400,000 Americans currently live with dialysis for end-stage renal disease, which in itself, magnifies the risk for concurrent heart disease. Researchers encourage health care providers to reconsider the benefits of digoxin when alternative treatments are available for heart disease in patients starting dialysis.
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| Annual Convention Registration Now Open! |
 Registration for AAKP's 37th Annual Convention is now open! The Convention is held Sept. 2 - 4, in Tampa, FL, at the Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina. The Convention features educational tracks specifically designed for chronic kidney disease (CKD), ESRD (dialysis) and transplant patients.
Full Convention packages include 3 days of educational sessions, a souvenir t-shirt, tote bag, tickets to social events and meals and admission to the Exhibit Hall.
For more information about registering for the 2010 Annual Convention, please contact AAKP at (800) 749-AAKP or visit the AAKP website. You may also download the registration brochure online. |
| Peritoneal Dialysis Called Underused | | Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is underused in the United States even though it offers a number of advantages over hemodialysis (HD), according to new research. In the first three years of dialysis treatment, PD is associated with better survival than HD, and PD patients need less erythropoietin than HD patients.
The barriers to the use of PD are many physicians and their patients falsely believe that infections are more common in PD than in HD. Yet, studies show that PD patients experience fewer episodes of peritonitis than HD patients experience sepsis. Other myths include the mistaken beliefs that all PD patients need vascular access back-up, PD is difficult to manage in the hospital setting, PD is not adequate for large patients, and survival rates are not as good on PD as they are on HD. For more information on your peritoneal dialysis options, visit the AAKP website. |
| Most Dialysis Patients Not Prepared for Emergency Evacuation |  Immediately after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the survival of more than 5,800 Gulf Coast kidney dialysis patients was threatened as the storm forced closure of 94 dialysis units. Within a month 148 of these patients had died.
Now nearly five years later, a survey of North Carolina kidney dialysis patients by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine researchers finds that most have not taken the emergency preparedness measures that would enable them to survive a hurricane or any other disaster that disrupts power and water services. North Carolina ranks fourth among the states in hurricane landfalls, behind Florida, Texas and Louisiana.
The study concludes that most survey respondents were unprepared for a potential disaster and therefore more efforts to address preparedness education techniques are warranted. The study authors note that the unpreparedness found in their study is in all likelihood not unique to North Carolina and is thought to be similar to the level of preparedness found among dialysis patients across the country. |
| Growth Hormone Safe for Infants with Chronic Kidney Failure |  Infants with chronic renal failure (CRF) grow slowly, a problem that usually improves with aggressive nutritional therapy. When it doesn't, growth hormone is a safe and effective treatment to promote growth, according to a study appearing in the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The study included 16 infants with CRF who had continued growth retardation despite nutritional therapy. All infants were receiving dialysis or other conservative treatments for their chronic kidney disease.
One group of infants received growth hormone while the other did not. During the yearlong study, infants treated with growth hormone grew an average of 5.7 inches, compared to 3.7 inches in those who did not receive growth hormone. The growth hormone caused no harmful effects such as early bone maturation, progression of kidney disease, or metabolic abnormalities.
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