ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The fourth episode of “Science Calling”, the podcast conducted by Myrta Merlino and produced and post-produced by Edulia, Sapere Treccani, online on Spotify, Apple Podcast and Amazon Music. The episode “Nefrology: the challenge of a silent organ”, realized with the non-conditional contribution of Amgen Italy, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Italy and Vantive Italy, is dedicated to kidney health and addresses two central areas of contemporary nephrology: Chronic Renal Disease and IgA Nephropathy. Through dialogue with Luca De Nicola, President of the Italian Society of Nephrology, and Loreto Gesualdo, President of the Italian Federation of Medical-Scientific Societies, the episode returns a picture in which prevention, therapeutic innovation and organization of the treatment paths are held together. The kidney therefore emerges as a regulator of the overall balance of the body, with implications that transgress the filter function and directly affect the cardiovascular and metabolic profile of the person. Ample space is dedicated to MRC, today recognized as one of the main challenges of public health for dissemination, silent progress and socio-economic impact. The episode therefore insists on the centrality of early diagnosis, based on the measurement of simple and accessible parameters – creatinine and albuminuria – and on the need to permanently integrate the culture of prevention in daily clinical practice. In this context, the new National Diagnostic-Therapeutic Assistenziale Preventive Path is located, which strengthens the connection between physicians of general medicine and nephrologists to quickly intercept subjects at risk – diabetics, hypertensives, patients with obesity or cardiovascular pathology – and accompany them in a structured path of taking charge. Sending to the specialist is also a crucial step for a wider evaluation of cardio-renal risk, which also includes monitoring lipid parameters and other associated metabolic factors, in an integrated kidney and heart protection logic. Contemporary nephrology, as it emerges from comparison, is no longer just management of advanced insufficiency, but early governance of risk throughout the cardio-renal- metabolic continuum. In this scenario the theme of peritoneal dialysis is also included, analyzed as a home mode capable of combining quality of life, economic sustainability and welfare continuity. In fact, the episode promptly recalls the pathways of peritoneal dialysis, highlighting how the organization of services can affect the equity of access and the seal of the health system. The episode also deepens the IgAN, the most frequent among the primary glomerulonephritis, autoimmune pathology that can evolve towards kidney failure if not recognized and treated in time. Patogenetic mechanisms are illustrated at the basis of immunocomplete deposit in glomeruli, the prognostic role of glomerular filter and albumin-creatinine relationship, as well as the new therapeutic options developed in recent years, able to intervene both on upstream immune processes and on the control of inflammation and progression of kidney damage. In dialogue with professor Gesualdo it emerges clearly how the understanding of immunological mechanisms has changed the scientific paradigm of the disease. In closing, the look expands to the system as a whole: structured prevention, territorial medicine, digitization of treatment paths and use of artificial intelligence tools to intercept “silent” patients emerge as decisive levers to reduce diagnostic delay and ensure homogeneity in access to therapies. It is in this passage that reflection becomes broader and civil. “Taking care of the kidney means takingtakes care of the time, of the time we gain in health, of what we return to everyday life,” says Myrta Merlino, summarizing the sense of an episode that places nephology in a broader transformation, in which scientific innovation, health organization and sustainability contribute to the protection of health throughout the entire span of life.
– photo press office Esperia –(ITALPRESS).
