Volume 16 Issue 8, August 2020

An obligation of medical journals is the responsible, professional and expeditious delivery of knowledge from researchers and practitioners to the community. The task of editors, therefore, rests not merely in selecting what to publish, but in judging how it might best be communicated. The challenge of improving descriptions of kidney function and disease in medical publishing was the impetus for a KDIGO consensus conference. The conference goals included standardizing and refining kidney-related nomenclature and developing a glossary to be used by journals.

The mechanism underlying glomerular filtration barrier selectivity has not been resolved. A new study that reports an inverse correlation between slit diaphragm density and proteinuria in a genetic mouse model of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis suggests that podocytes function to compress the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and that failure of this process results in GBM stretching and increased permeability.

Clinical trials of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) receptor agonists have shown beneficial effects of these agents on kidney outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Two new cohort studies now demonstrate that these findings are generalizable to the broad range of patients seen in clinical practice.

Genomic profiling of renal cell carcinoma has demonstrated the clinical relevance of several genetic alterations in different disease subtypes. Pal and colleagues discuss the prognostic and predictive value of these alterations, and how they might help to improve treatment selection and patient outcomes.

Capasso and colleagues provide an overview of cognitive dysfunction resulting from CKD, including mild cognitive impairment and dementia. CKD-associated cognitive impairment seems to be caused by the effects of uraemic neurotoxins and kidney neurotrophins on specific neurons and regions of the brain.

This expert Consensus Statement from the Pediatric Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (PCRRT) workgroup presents recommendations for the management of hyperammonaemia requiring kidney replacement therapy in paediatric populations. Additional studies are needed to strengthen these recommendations, which will be reviewed every 2 years.