Free Republic

TEHRAN — Iranian students are offering rewards totaling a million dollars for the execution of three top Israeli military officers over the deadly strikes on Gaza, and they are encouraging fellow Iranians to donate their kidneys to raise the funds, the student news agency ISNA reported on Monday. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Mossad spy agency director Meir Dagan and military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin are the targets of the bounty. They are blamed for last month's assassination of Hezbollah mastermind Imad Mughniyeh. The rewards were announced by the Justice Seeking Students Group on Sunday at a ceremony in Tehran...

NEW DELHI: The world’s most common procedure for clearing blocked kidney arteries may actually end up severely damaging kidney function. For the first time ever, researchers from North Carolina’s Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre have shown that the debris of cholesterol and plaques, released during angioplasty and stenting of kidney arteries, get lodged in crucial blood vessels and impair kidney function. After analysing 28 angioplasty cases, researchers used a protection device to temporarily block the vessel at the site of the angioplasty and stenting. After the procedure, and while the protection system was still in place, researchers took a...

A controversial Dutch reality TV show featuring a contest to win a kidney was a hoax, producers Endemol have admitted. The Big Donor Show was supposed to have featured a terminally-ill woman choosing a recipient for her kidneys. However, at the last minute the programme's producers, who also make Big Brother, revealed on air that the woman starring on the reality show was a healthy actress. But the contestants trying to win the kidneys are genuine and are still in need of organs. All knew the programme was a hoax before they agreed to participate. Programme makers Endemol said their...

The nation's organ-transplant network is preparing a major change in how it rations scarce kidneys that would favor young patients over old in an effort to wring more life out of donated organs. Today, a donated kidney generally goes to the person who has been waiting longest in the region in which it becomes available, with exceptions made for certain medical factors. A kidney from a 25-year-old donor could be transplanted into a 75-year-old, who is likely to die years before the kidney would have stopped working. The new policy is being developed by the United Network for Organ Sharing,...

A desperately ill doctor bets on a miracle Sunday, September 26, 2004 First of four partsOne patient was on the table and another was in the next exam room when the phone rang for Dr. Robert Manzi, a Ridgefield internist. He took it in the hallway and said, "Hi, Joe, what's up?"It was his kidney specialist, a colleague at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, calling with results from Manzi's biopsy. Manzi hoped to find out why he'd been losing weight, feeling tired, and seeing suds in his urine."Bob,'' the specialist said, "you have primary systemic amyloidosis.''Manzi had read a brief...

Animal study shows promise for treatment of Alport syndrome BOSTON -- The discovery that bone-marrow derived stem cells can regenerate damaged renal cells in an animal model of Alport syndrome provides a potential new strategy for managing this inherited kidney disease and offers the first example of how stem cells may be useful in repairing basement membrane matrix defects and restoring organ function. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the findings are described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which appears on-line the week of April 24, 2006. Symptoms of Alport syndrome,...

WASHINGTON, April 9 — The use of shock waves to pulverize kidney stones into sand-like material significantly increases the risk for diabetes and high blood pressure later in life, according to the longest follow-up study of the popular therapy. In the study, which is to be published on Monday from the Mayo Clinic, patients who underwent the pulverizing procedure, known as lithotripsy, developed diabetes at almost four times the rate of those whose kidney stones were treated by other methods. The lithotripsy group also developed high blood pressure about 50 percent more often than a group treated by other methods,...

Substance levels point to high blood pressure (ANSA) - Genoa, February 24 - The kidney can give important signs of the dangers of a heart attack or stroke, Genoa University researchers say . Until now, a slight increase in the secretion of a substance called albumin - similar to albumen or egg white - was considered normal, the researchers say . But such a rise is now believed to be a danger sign or 'red flag' showing that these patients have dangerously high blood pressure and are thus at greater risk of heart attacks, the Genoa team says . By...

Half of dialysis patients fail to receive life-saving vitamin An article published online in advance of the April issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (www.jasn.org) found that administering injectable vitamin D to chronic kidney failure patients who are undergoing dialysis significantly improves survival. The annual mortality rate of dialysis patients is currently 20 percent in the United States, due mainly to cardiovascular disease.Because individuals with failing kidneys cannot effectively utilize vitamin D provided by the diet, injections have been recommended, but only for those with hyperparathyroidism meaning that about half of those receiving dialysis are lacking...

Secret Kidney Disease   A shocking 10 million to 20 million Americans have kidney disease and don't know it. Moreover, over 7 million people have less than half the kidney function of a healthy young adult; while another 11.3 million have at least half of what's regarded as normal kidney function, but with persistent protein in their urine (a sign of kidney disease). High chronic kidney disease increases one's risk of premature death, heart attack, stroke, hypertension, anemia, bone disease and malnutrition. In light of this data, it is evident that a major plan of action is needed in...