Kidney Ailments: Testing of Biomarkers To Check Vulnerability at Uddanam
Uddanam pilot aims to detect kidney disease early through advanced testing
Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has taken up testing of biomarkers in urine samples to find out their vulnerability to kidney infections. This is a pilot project at Uddanam in Srikakulam district.
The health research wing of the Indian Council of Medical Research agreed to provide a grant of Rs 6.2 crore to take up the research, especially at Uddanam, for a period of three years.
The research is led by senior nephrologist Prof Tatapudi Raviraju as mentor and Andhra Medical College nephrology professor Dr G Prasad as the principal investigator. A special team has been formed, comprising scientists and technical experts.
The team started meeting the people and collected blood and urine samples of 1,500 persons from the area. The samples have been secured in a kidney research centre at Palasa. Subsequently, these would be shifted to the KGH lab in Visakhapatnam.
The lab has been equipped with centrifuges, deep freezers, sample storage systems, analytical instruments and field sampling kits as per norms of ICMR.
Senior nephrologist Ravi Raju and nephrology professor Prasad said the biomarker testing would help identify people suffering from kidney ailments at the primary stage itself, based on testing their urine samples. This, they said, was for the first time such mass testing was being done.
The testing would show the chance, if any, for the targeted people to get kidney ailments in the next three to four years and the intensity of the disease. This would help them take medical treatment in advance so that the disease would not become chronic.
Health minister Satya Yadav said the previous TD government, during 2014-19, entrusted the responsibility for the research to the Australia-based George Institute, to identify the reasons for outbreak of kidney ailments. After the present government assumed power in 2024, it resumed the research work.
